Lawrence Miller, 78

SANTA ROSA, CALIF. – Lawrence Samuel Miller (Larry), of Santa Rosa, peacefully passed away in his sleep at home on Nov. 21, 2022. Larry grew up in Providence and lived there until 1986 when he moved to San Francisco to pursue a life of healing the world. He got close, but after the 2016 election that all fell apart.

Larry graduated from Hope High School and attended elementary school at Providence Hebrew Day School, inspiring lifelong agnosticism and devotion to Buddhist practices as an adult. Larry received a BA from New Hampshire College before marrying Sara (Linder) Sheiber of Providence.

As a Sergeant in the United States Army during the Viet Nam War Larry was stationed in Berlin and liked to brag that he killed more Germans during the Viet Nam War than any other soldier. This was not true.

After earning an MA in Psychology from the New School in San Francisco, Larry had several careers as a clinical psychotherapist, licensed massage therapist, non-denominational hospital chaplain and foster parent to medically fragile babies in the San Francisco foster system. Larry and his then partner Mindy Zlotnick devoted 7 years to caring for medically fragile newborns and infants for three to six months at a time, with some babies staying two to three years.

After this rewarding and challenging period of his life Larry embarked on a year-and-a-half journey trekking and meditating around Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Viet Nam and Burma, furthering a wisdom and anti-authoritarian free-spirit that was the compass to his world view. A long-time devotee of being naked in public places that sanctioned nudity, Larry loved soaking in hot springs around the globe and even spent one summer with his son in pursuit of a higher consciousness through guided MDMA and Psilosybin voyages in the natural thermal pools of the American West. This was his version of “Playing catch with Dad.” Science is beginning to follow his lead.

Larry gave his life to healing the human soul, but the last six years of a hateful divided country, absconding of community and humanism, the rise of peoples’ materialism and social media-driven infantilization caused him to retreat to his little front yard garden to quietly live out his final years. He was too kind to say anything to anyone about it, but the lack of a judicious and kind world hurt him deeply, after so many years of giving without asking for anything in return. Per his final wishes, Larry donated his body to UC Davis for scientific research.

Donations can be sent to the VA Northern California Health Care System, which took good care of him for 30 years. The challenges of being a deeply empathetic human being never stopped him from dancing; an art form in which he exhibited supreme brilliance.”

Larry is survived by son Lee Miller of Nashville, Tennessee, grandchildren Max and Sophia Miller, partner Kira Ohina of Santa Rosa, and sister Iris Minkin of Narragansett.