Dr. Richard Tsuruo Mamiya is a Sansei born in 1925 in the Kalihi-Palama neighborhood of Honolulu, Hawai'i. The oldest of four sons, Dr. Mamiya is a highly regarded cardiovascular surgeon who attended St. Louis High School in Honolulu where he was a star athlete, playing varsity football, baseball, and basketball, eventually earning a football scholarship to the University of Hawaii. As an undergraduate, he was encouraged to go into medicine by a zoology teacher and ultimately received his medical training from St. Louis University Medical School in Missouri. After teaching medicine in Missouri, he and his family returned to Hawaii, where he served as one of the founders of the University of Hawai'i Medical School. He performed the first coronary bypass surgery in Hawaii in 1970 and made progress in the field of pediatric cardiac surgery in the days when it was still a growing specialty.
Though he officially retired from surgery in 1995, Dr. Mamiya continues his philanthropic work through two organizations he has founded. The Richard T. Mamiya Charitable Foundation is devoted to supporting humanitarian and charitable works across the state of Hawai‘i and the Mamiya Heritage Library is a comprehensive collection of local medical data, based in the Hawaiian Medical Library. (May 11, 2007)
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