Atlantic General Hospital Receives Donation Honoring Longtime Ocean City Community Staples

Pictured from left to right: Toni Keiser, Atlantic General Hospital VP of Public Relations; Lorrie Miller, General Manager of the Dunes

Manor Hotel; David Del Russo, Regional Director of Operations for OTO Development Group; Don Owrey, Atlantic General Hospital

President & CEO; Steven Tyson, Atlantic General Hospital Foundation Donor Relations Officer.

On November 30, 2022, Lorrie Miller, General Manager of the Dunes Manor Hotel, and David Del Russo, Regional Director of Operations for OTO Development Group, donated the portraits of Milton and Thelma Conner to Atlantic General Hospital. The couple played a large role in the Ocean City community for decades, and Thelma built and ran the iconic Dunes Manor Hotel.

Accompanying the portraits was a donation of $11,500 raised from equipment sales and matching gifts.

Thelma Conner moved to Ocean City in 1940 to work with her husband at his family’s Hastings Miramar Hotel. The couple eventually bought the Dunes Motel on 27th Street in the 60s, operating that property together until Milton passed away in 1979. Eight years later, Thelma fulfilled the couple’s dream and built the Dunes Manor Hotel, an 11-story, Victorian-style hotel on 28th Street.

Conner was the first female president of the Ocean City Chamber of Commerce in 1974 and was named the 1985 Chamber of Commerce Outstanding Citizen of the Year. She also served as the president of the Hotel Motel Restaurant Association in 1985 and was named 1994 Maryland Independent Hotelier of the Year.

In the spring of 1990, the community campaign to build Atlantic General Hospital kicked off at the Dunes Manor Hotel, as Conner supported the idea of opening “a new chapter in healthcare.” Conner went on to be one of the first members of the Atlantic General Hospital Board of Directors.

The Dunes Manor Hotel is currently being renovated to bring a more modern and coastal feel to the property while also still maintaining some of the Victorian old-world charm and amenities that were so important to the Conners, such as the ornate lobby ceiling and the ocean-facing rocking chairs on the back veranda. Both the Dunes Manor Hotel and Atlantic General Hospital look forward to serving the community for many more generations to come.