Dear Friends,
Ellen, my beloved wife and partner of 47 years, devoted mother of Lorrie and Michael, grandmother of Satchel, Marley and Cooper, sister of Robert, Susan and Connie, died peacefully this evening in the company of family and beloved dogs.
She courageously fought multiple varieties of cancer for over 30 years with her trademark determination, humor, and grace. She significantly beat the 2% five year survival odds that she was given by the University of Nebraska at the time she underwent an experimental bone marrow transplant nearly 20 years ago.
Her end of life directive for us was very simple: No Sniveling. She did not want a Funeral, but rather a Celebration of Life ceremony which will be held in approximately a month. Those of you who knew Ellen well wouldn't be surprised that that she planned most everything.
Ellen asked me to thank you for your friendship and support over the years. Although she's physically left us, we will carry our love for her forever.
In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to The Baltimore Lab School, 2220 St. Paul Street, Baltimore, MD: c/o of the Dr. Ellen McDaniel Scholarship Fund.
Love,
John
Ellen G. McDaniel, U-Md. official
Ellen G. McDaniel, 71, a forensic psychiatrist who became associate dean for admissions at the University of Maryland’s medical school in Baltimore, died Jan. 3 at her home in the Howard County community of Highland. She had lung cancer.
Her husband, John P. McDaniel, confirmed the death.
Dr. McDaniel, who served on professional panels and task forces in Maryland, joined the medical school faculty in 1970 and became associate dean in 1982. After her full-time academic career ended around 1990, she opened a private practice in Towson, Md. Throughout her career, she was an expert witness in forensic psychiatry in legal cases and also conducted patient evaluations for competency to stand trial.
Ellen Rachel Garb was a Cleveland native and attended Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh before graduating in 1966 from the University of Michigan’s medical school. She completed her psychiatric residency at what is now the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore. She was a graduate of the Baltimore Washington Institute for Psychoanalysis in the District.
Dr. McDaniel was a past president of the Maryland Psychiatric Society and a regional chapter of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law. In addition to her faculty role at the University of Maryland, she had academic appointments at the George Washington University and the Georgetown University medical schools. She published and lectured widely.
Dr. McDaniel was a past board member of the old Maryland Ballet in Baltimore and the Lab School of Washington. More recently, she was a founding board member of the Baltimore Lab School.
Survivors include her husband of 47 years, John P. McDaniel of Highland; two children, Celia “Lorrie” Clendenin of Bethesda and Michael McDaniel of Baltimore; a brother; two sisters; and three grandchildren.
— Adam Bernstein
Dr. Ellen G. McDaniel, psychiatrist
Former associate dean at the University of Maryland School of Medicine was noted for her work in forensic psychiatry
January 06, 2013|By Jamie Smith Hopkins, The Baltimore Sun
Dr. Ellen G. McDaniel, whose distinguished career in psychiatry spanned more than 40 years and influenced patients, medical students and even juries, died of lung cancer Thursday at her home in Highland. She was 71.
The former Ellen Garb was raised in Cleveland and went off to college with thoughts of becoming a nurse. But her father encouraged her to train as a doctor, and she did — graduating from the University of Michigan Medical School as one of only seven women in the class of 1966, said her husband, John P. McDaniel.
"She was a trailblazer," he said.
The McDaniels graduated together from Michigan, were married the next day and went off to Delaware Hospital in Wilmington, he to work in administration and she to do a rotating internship.
Dr. McDaniel joined the University of Maryland School of Medicine as a faculty member in 1970. Her 22 years there — including 10 as associate dean for admissions — improved a generation of students and young doctors, her colleagues said.
"The field of psychiatry and mental health was really served well by her," said Denis J. Madden, a psychologist who worked at the school before becoming an auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese of Baltimore. "She helped form leaders and form good docs."
She saw people holistically. She got to know applicants to the school beyond their grades and test scores, and she impressed upon medical students that patients with physiological problems have emotional and psychological needs, too — as do their families.
"For those of us who trained in psychiatry at the University of Maryland, there was a very stiff competition to have her as a supervisor," said Dr. Paul McClelland, chief of psychiatry at St. Agnes Hospital in Baltimore, who counts himself as one of the students she influenced. "Ellen was so knowledgeable, and at the same time, so down-to-earth. … You left wanting to be a better psychiatrist and a better person."
Dr. McDaniel brought humor to duties that other faculty members might have griped about — seeing more than 35 unfamiliar patients in a single day while pulling a weekend shift at the hospital, for instance. She didn't complain. She laughed.
"She just had a real disarming sense of humor that made it so safe to reveal your own character flaws and just be more genuine," said Dr. McClelland, who worked with her at the medical school after training there. "Her patients absolutely loved her. … She just made you comfortable being yourself."
And she was cheerful despite a specialty that could easily depress: forensic psychiatry, the intersection of mental health and crime. She testified in cases across the mid-Atlantic, speaking to defendants' mental states and other details that influence decisions on guilt or sentencing.
William J. Rowan III, a retired Montgomery County circuit judge, said Dr. McDaniel was such a respected expert that "the hardest thing" he ever did was rule against her recommendation on whether to accept the insanity defense of a young Marine who stabbed his father to death.
Dr. McDaniel, who worked in private practice after leaving the University of Maryland in 1992, focused entirely on forensic psychiatry in the past decade. Earlier, she had also seen patients in a general practice.
Her professional life was just a piece of the whole, though. She raised two children. She was a founding board member of the Baltimore Lab School for bright students with learning disabilities. She gardened. She wrote short stories. She raised thoroughbred racehorses, with her husband, on their farm. She served on state panels, including a task force on domestic violence. And she traveled extensively — going to dozens of countries, from Iceland to Cambodia.
"One time I asked her what she was going to do for her vacation, and she bowled me over when she told me she was going bungee jumping in Thailand," Judge Rowan said.
Mr. McDaniel, who called his wife "a master of multi-tasking," said she also advocated for social issues she felt passionate about, among them gay rights and repealing the death penalty. She used her sense of humor to ensure that Maryland's ballot measure to approve same-sex marriage got one more vote than it otherwise would have.
"She said, 'Look, you promise me you're going to vote for gay marriage,'" said her husband, a Republican who often canceled out her more liberal votes. "I said, 'Well, I'm not sure I can do that.' She said, 'No, look, you're not going to deny a dying woman's last request!' "
It worked. He laughs at the recollection.
Dr. McDaniel spent the past 30 years battling with cancer — first ovarian, then breast, then non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and finally lung. The lymphoma was a close thing: It was only through an experimental program in Nebraska that she was able to get a bone-marrow transplant, and the doctors gave her a 2 percent chance of living five years afterward. Instead, she lived for 20.
"The perspective that Ellen always had was how blessed and privileged she had been," Mr. McDaniel said. "She would say to people, 'I've had a great run.'"
In addition to her husband, Dr. McDaniel is survived by her children, Lorrie Clendenin of Bethesda and Michael McDaniel of Baltimore; a brother, Robert Garb of San Rafael, Calif.; two sisters, Susan Jaworowski of Avon, Ohio, and Connie Gale of Jerome, Mich.; and three grandchildren.
The family expects to hold a celebration of life ceremony on a date to be determined. Donations may be made to the Dr. Ellen McDaniel Scholarship Fund at the Baltimore Lab School, 2220 St. Paul St., Baltimore 21218.
twitter.com/jsmithhopkins
This is a draft story about an "Uncle Joe" written on 09/04/2012. I guess we now know who the real horseman... (sorry mom) horseperson is in the family.
Uncle Joe torpedoed straight out of central casting: protruding abdomen, black mustache, gravelly voice, a Cuban Cohiba cigar clenched between his teeth on the right side of his mouth and a scotch and water atop a nearby table. He carried the Daily Racing Form under his left arm and taught me, Faith, how to make fancy bets like a Superfecta, using the Form as my textbook. Uncle Joe patiently placed my bets for me and never questioned my final decisions. I didn’t know anyone my age back then who knew how to handicap and bet. The track stood near the community swimming pool where I worked during my adolescence summers. Whenever he saw me walking to work, he’d give me a ride and slip me a $50 bill. Uncle Joe’s wallet always bulged with cash which he depleted by playing the ponies in the afternoon and poker at night with his pals. I never attended the card games growing up but Uncle Joe taught me how to play.
In 10th grade Uncle Joe introduced me to alcohol. He asked me to tell my two sisters to join us for lunch. Joe always had lunch at Stouffers. He sat in the front room facing the exit with his back to the wall. I did not ask my sisters, Joanne and Maria. I thought he wanted lunch alone with me. Wrong, wrong, wrong. In retrospect, I recognize that I wanted his exclusive attention and ‘forgot’ his request to ask my sisters. I still feel badly about that. But that is when I had my first cocktail---a whiskey sour. Delicious the first time and deadly down the road.
I started going to the track with Uncle Joe on a more regular basis around the time I had my first cocktail. On Saturday afternoons my homework had to be completed before I left the house. That hardly presented a problem. Uncle Joe had a box seat right at the finish line and six people could sit in it. His trainer, his friends, and a variety of odd characters paid homage to Uncle Joe with brief visits. Once in a while, I’d see money exchange hands. Uncle Joe always gave me $50 to bet but did not add more when I lost. $10 across the board was my favorite bet. The prior race would end and Uncle Joe and I would go down to the paddock to watch the horses in the upcoming race, led by their handlers, walk in a circle while the crowd tried to discern if a little sweat on a horse or a confirmation problem meant no-win. Every single horse looked beautiful to me. After each horse’s identification tattoo was examined, the crew for each horse would saddle up and the jockey, typically around 120 pounds and 5 feet 4 inches, would step into the trainer’s cupped hand and mount the horse. With a pony escorting the horses, the horses walked on to the track for some more exhibitions until it was time to “load the gate.”
Once in a while, I’d see this one man talking privately with Uncle John.
The horses entered the starting gate according to their post position randomly obtained earlier. If a horse balked at the gate, the horses already loaded had to wait in that narrow fenced in space. Finally the bell rings, the gates open, the announcer says they’re off, and the excitement mounts.
Freddie, an usher, stood at attention in the box seat area, always willing to escort an owner to the winner’s circle. The owner, in a cloud of temporary happiness, typically tipped Freddie anywhere from $5.00 to $100.00.
