Michael Leonard Milligan, State Department official who collected friends along with contemporary art, dies

Michael Leonard Milligan, a State Department official who collected friends along with contemporary art, died of a heart attack Dec. 14 at Holy Cross Hospital while traveling in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The Mount Vernon resident was 81.

Born in Brooklyn, New York, he was the son of Mike Milligan, a tailor, and Mertice Williams, a beautician. He was a graduate of the old Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn.

“He told us he was a classmate of Barbra Streisand and Neil Diamond,” said a friend, Alexander “Sandy” Daignault.

He earned a degree at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

“He was low-key and made friends easily,” said his sister, Ida Wright. “He never met a stranger and he had a good memory for names.”

He joined the Peace Corps and served in Afghanistan and later joined the Army. During the administration of President Richard M. Nixon he received an appointment to the foreign service.

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He trained with the State Department in Washington, D.C., and attended a Montreal language school where he learned to speak fluent French.

Mr. Milligan was posted to U.S. embassies in Madrid, Paris, Ankara, Rabat, Morocco, Milan, and Vienna.

After living in Washington, D.C., he moved to Baltimore in 2005 and settled in an apartment overlooking Mount Vernon Place’s Washington Monument.

“He found a home in Baltimore and he fit in quite well,” his brother, Joseph Milligan, said.

“Michael was certainly one of a kind,” said a friend and neighbor, George Johnston. “He was very much a man of the world and loved nothing more than travel. Yet oddly he was tethered to Baltimore, a city where he never expected to live for long. By his own admission he could not boil water. As a result while at home he was a constant presence in Baltimore’s dining scene — out seven nights a week and knew every bargain that was to be had.

“Michael’s gift for friendship was remarkable,” said Mr. Johnston. “Literally, across the globe he had a multitude of friends, many for decades. In Baltimore when you went out with Michael, you could be sure that there would be many folks anxious to catch up with him.”

His family and friends said he was at a concert in Spain when he spoke to the woman sitting near him.

“A few weeks later a gold embossed invitation came to the embassy in Madrid,” said his sister, Ida Wright. “He was the only one who received it. It was from Queen Sofia.”

After Mr. Milligan’s retirement he was called back to assist in the Middle East.

He was a collector of contemporary art and a member of the Baltimore Museum of Art.

He also collected Spanish paintings but displayed pen-and-ink drawings by Baltimore artist Reuben Kramer throughout his home.

He attended Art Basel in Miami Beach, Florida. He also visited the Venice Biennale, the Armory Show in New York City and the Foire Internationale d’Art Contemporain in Paris.

Mr. Milligan was a board member of the San Francisco-based Kronos Quartet and an opera fan who attended the Wexford Festival Opera in Ireland for more than 30 years.

He was a patron of Baltimore restaurants.

“He loved his Sunday nights at the Prime Rib. He was a fan of La Cuchara [in Woodberry] because it was adventurous and changed its menu,” said Mr. Daignault, his friend.

Mr. Milligan was a record keeper and his address book listed more than 1,800 entries.

“You’d be with him and his phone would ring with calls from all over the world. He made friends wherever he went,” said Mr. Daignault. “People gravitated to his nature. I once heard a woman say of him, ‘Michael Milligan was my Cary Grant.’ He had a smile and a stylish stature. His look was quiet, reserved and inviting at the same time.”

He was a member of Emmanuel Episcopal Church in Mount Vernon. He attended the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and performances at the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University.

Survivors include his brother, Joseph Milligan, of Lithonia, Georgia; his sister, Ida Wright, of Washington, D.C.; an aunt, Clara Williams, of Salley, South Carolina; and nieces and nephews. His brother, Robert Stanley Milligan, preceded him in death.

A memorial service is being planned.