Thomas Gillespie

Dr. Thomas Edward Gillespie, 65, of Millersville, died of cancer June 26 at home.

Born March 17, 1940, in Hazelton, Pa., Dr. Gillespie graduated from Bucknell University in 1961 and earned a medical degree from Georgetown University School of Medicine in Washington, D.C., in 1965. He served a yearlong internship at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta. Then he was in the Navy as medical staff aboard a nuclear submarine and on the hospital ship, USS Repose, in Vietnam. He was discharged as a lieutenant commander.

Dr. Gillespie completed residency programs in both orthopedic and plastic surgery at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee. He completed a hand surgery fellowship at the University of Iowa School of Medicine in Iowa City in 1978.

From 1978 to 1983 he taught at Louisiana State University Hospital in Shreveport. He joined the University of Maryland Hospital in 1983 as a hand surgeon and in 1992 served at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Baltimore.

His medical memberships included the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons, the Society for Surgery of the Hand and the Alpha Omega Alpha medical fraternity.

This past May the inaugural Thomas E. Gillespie Award for Excellence in Orthopedics was awarded to a graduating University of Maryland Medical School student.

Surviving are his wife, Barbara L. Gillespie; one stepson, Jason Propsom of Miami; two sisters, Lee Gillespie of Sugar Loaf, Pa., and Denise Frumin of Conyngham, Pa.; and one step-grandson. He was the brother of the late Patricia Surmick.

Visitation will be from 2 to 4 and 7 to 9 p.m. tomorrow at Barranco and Sons Severna Park Funeral Home, 495 Ritchie Highway. Funeral services will be at 10 a.m. Thursday at Our Lady of the Fields Catholic Church, 1070 Cecil Ave., Millersville, with burial in the church cemetery.

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions can be made to Hospice of the Chesapeake, 445 Defense Highway, Annapolis, MD 21401.
As published in "The Capital Newspaper" 06/29/2005