Dr. Milton F. Ebersol, 86, Watertown

Dr. Milton Farney Ebersol, 86, Brookside Drive, Watertown, died at 2:22 a.m. Tuesday in the emergency room at Samaritan Medical Center.

Dr. Ebersol was a veterinarian for 40 years in Watertown and was a 50-year member of Watertown Rotary Club.
Born July 8, 1922, in the town of New Bremen, a son of Joseph F. and Florence L. Farney Ebersol, he grew up on the Ebersol homestead farm between Beaver Falls and Croghan.

He graduated in 1940 from Beaver Falls High School and worked for a time at J.P. Lewis Co., Beaver Falls.
He married Marjorie Joyce Hirschey on Nov. 2, 1944, at the Boonville Methodist parsonage with the Rev. Robert U. Holmes officiating.
A Navy veteran of World War II, he enlisted Oct. 11, 1942, in New York City and received flight training at Colgate University, Hamilton, and in Hutchinson, Kan. In July 1944, as an ensign, he was designated as a naval aviator at Corpus Christi, Texas.
He served with Patrol Bombing Squadron VPB-124, flying PB4Y-2B Privateers, stationed on Okinawa.

He received an Air Medal for action in aerial flight in the western Pacific in 1945 and was discharged from active duty April 28, 1947, at Pensacola, Fla., as a lieutenant junior grade.
After the war, he taught navigation at Naval Air Station, Pensacola, for a time and served in the naval reserve until his honorable discharge Aug. 22, 1960.

He had attended several reunions of his naval squadron during the past 25 years.
He attended Sampson College, Geneva, from 1947 to 1949 and the New York State Veterinary College at Cornell University, Ithaca, from 1949 to 1953, graduating as a doctor of veterinary medicine.

He was a member of Cornell’s Beta Chapter of Omega Tau Sigma national veterinary society and, after graduating, worked for a year at Pine Tree Veterinary Hospital, Augusta, Maine.
Dr. and Mrs. Ebersol purchased the home of Mr. and Mrs. Corwin T. Jewell Sr. on Cemetery Road, which later became Brookside Drive, in October 1954 and established Hillspring Veterinary Hospital as a large- and small-animal practice.

He shifted his practice in the early 1960s to small animals and retired in 1994. Mrs. Ebersol, who assisted her husband in his practice, died Jan. 4, 2004.
Dr. Ebersol had been a member of Watertown Rotary Club since June 1958.

He was a three-time Paul Harris Fellow, had been active on the club’s Foundation Committee for the past 13 years and recently was recognized for 49 years of perfect attendance.
He also was a longtime member of First Presbyterian Church; a member of the American Veterinary Medical Association, the Central New York Veterinary Society, the Central New York Corvair Club and the Corvair Society of America, and a life member of the Town of Watertown Historical Society.
He enjoyed collecting classic cars, gardening, landscaping and the outdoors, especially working in the woods.
Surviving are a son, Lee Hirschey Ebersol, and a daughter, Sue Ebersol DeMar, both of Watertown; a brother, Earl J., Austin, Texas; a granddaughter, nieces, nephews and cousins.

A brother, Paul F., died Nov. 22, 2004.
A graveside service will be at 11 a.m. Sept. 13 in the Apostolic Christian Church Cemetery, Croghan. A memorial service will be at 2 p.m. that day at Trinity Episcopal Church, Watertown, followed by a reception in the church’s Great Hall.
There will be no calling hours.

Arrangements are with D.L. Calarco Funeral Home.
Donations may be made to the Rotary Foundation, in care of Watertown Rotary Club; First Presbyterian Church Radio Ministry; Trinity Episcopal Church Music Ministry, or Hospice of Jefferson County.