BROOKSVILLE – Mary Miller Dietrich, M.D., 85, died Oct. 25, 2004. She was born Aug. 17, 1919, in Boston, the daughter of Alton Lombard Miller and Mary Mason Miller. Mary graduated from the Brimmer May School (1939) in Boston, Mount Holyoke College (1942) in South Hadley, Mass., and Tufts University Medical School (1945) in Boston. She practiced medicine in Orrington in the days when a house call cost $5 and an office call cost $3. She closed her practice when she joined the Cutler Student Health Center at the University of Maine as a university physician. She served on the medical staffs of Eastern Maine Medical Center and St. Joseph’s Hospital in Bangor and belonged to the American Medical Women’s Association, the Penobscot County Medical Society, the Bangor Medical Club, and the American Academy of General Practice. She volunteered at the Family Planning Clinic in Bangor and at the Medical Outpatient Clinic at Eastern Maine. With her husband, Albert G. Dietrich, she retired to their favorite spot on Cape Rosier, where they enjoyed boating among the islands of Penobscot Bay, picnicking, painting, organic gardening and being friends and neighbors of Helen and Scott Nearing. In Brooksville, Mary did volunteer work for the Brooksville Public Library and participated in the local book club. Mary loved classical music, particularly string quartets. She studied the cello. In her youth, she, her sister (on violin) and her father (on piano), often played piano trios or-when musical friends visited-quartets. As a child and a young woman she hiked the White Mountains with her father, uncle and cousins. She spent some of the happiest years of her life as a student at Mount Holyoke College where she learned the courage to carry through with a medical education, something that many women did not do during the years of World War II. She was known for her persistence, her generosity, and her stiff upper lip. She was an accomplished oil painter, she had a habit of taking dips in the icy ocean with her sun hat on, and she loved her miniature long-haired dachshunds, Fergie and Pippin. During the Vietnam War Mary was a member of Mothers for Peace. Recently she became dismayed and disillusioned again by the foreign policy of war conducted by her country. She regretted that she didn’t have time to vote for better national leaders before she had to leave. Although her ancestors who fought in the American Revolution would turn over in their graves if they knew it, she admired Queen Elizabeth II and the Royal Family (most of them). Mary enjoyed a good martini, straight up, and dining out was one of her great pleasures. Near the end of her life she welcomed support from two old friends, Pat Farr of Brooksville and Terri Kinney of Omaha. Throughout Mary’s life, her bond with her sister, Ruth, sustained her emotionally and spiritually. Mary was predeceased by Al, her husband of 55 years. Surviving are her sister, Ruth Miller Gates (Mrs. Richard) of Needham, Mass.; Mary’s three children, Mary Louise of Cape Rosier, David and his wife, Barbara, of Blue Hill; and Mark and his wife, Ney, of Richmond, Calif.; her grandchildren and great-grandchildren, Eric Dietrich, his wife, Liv, and their daughter, Amelia; Travis Dietrich and his companion, Terry Craig, Lensa Woodward, her husband, Kevin, and their children, Rosie and William; and Benjamin Dietrich and his companion, Andrea Caron. She is also survived by a cousin, Carlton Miller of Laconia, N.H.; nieces, Robin Elliott and Constance Carter; a nephew, Stephen Gates, Al’s brother, Frank, and his wife, Christine, of La Junta, Colo.; and their children, Sally, Susan, and Larry; and many friends, old and new, of Bangor, Orrington and the Brooksville area. A memorial service and celebration of Mary’s life will be held 2 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 30, at the First Congregational Church in Blue Hill. Another celebration of her life will be held in the summer of 2005 for friends and family. Donations may be made in her memory to Kneisel Hall Scholarship Endowment Fund, Blue Hill, ME 04614, to the Brooksville Free Public Library, P.O. Box 38, Brooksville, ME 04617; or to her beloved Mount Holyoke College, care of the Alumnae Association, Mount Holyoke College, 50 College St., South Hadley, MA 01075-1486. Mary passed on a love of the natural world to her children and grandchildren. When we watch the sun set behind the Camden Hills, we will remember her. A service of Memorial Alternatives, Bangor.