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Dr. Shigeo Natori peacefully passed away at home on April 2, 2023, about two months shy of his 97th birthday. Born in Furukawa, Japan, he was selected to attend the Sendai Military Cadet School and then the Japanese Military Academy, Tokyo, during World War II. Fortunately, the war ended just before graduation. After the war he was admitted into Tohoku University School of Medicine and graduated in 1949. He completed a rotating internship at Tohoku University Hospital in 1952 and he left for the United States for a residency at Maryland General Hospital. He met his future wife Gertrude Miyamoto in Baltimore. A year later they were married, and he moved to Hawaii working as a resident at Kapiolani Hospital for a year. He returned to Baltimore and spent the next three years completing rotating internships at Maryland General Hospital and Johns Hopkins University Hospital. He established his private practice in Hawaii and eventually built the Moiliili Medical Building. He partnered with Dr. F. C. Li and Dr. Thomas Teruya to create the largest OB-GYN practice in the State. He was a Clinical Professor in the Department of OB-GYN at the University of Hawaii, John A. Burns School of Medicine, and a Member of the Medical Executive Committee at Kapiolani and Kuakini. During the 1970s and 1980s he hosted Japanese physicians and nurses who attended seminars in Hawaii and on the mainland to keep pace with the rapid clinical progress in the United States. He was the guest speaker at many Japanese medical associations. At the encouragement of an Asahi Shimbun reporter he wrote his book, “Advice to Japanese Medicine”, in 1981. During the late 1980s he focused more on Hawaii, co-founding Hawaii’s first Independent Physicians Association known as Pacific Medical Administrative Group, which currently represents over 750 physician members. He served as its first President. He retired in 2004 after 46 years of private practice in Hawaii. Although he received many awards and built buildings and organizations, his greatest accomplishment was his amazing relationship with his patients. For some local families he took care of four generations of women. He truly enjoyed learning about their lives, and the struggles and successes that came their way. During his later years he would run into former patients while both waited for their medical appointments, as well as children whom he delivered whose middle names were “Shigeo”. The bonds he had with his patients were unique and priceless. He was preceded in death by his devoted wife Gertrude. He is survived by his sons Gregory (Sandra), Jeffrey (Eriko), Donn, and Nathan (Jo-Lynne), 10 grandchildren, and 2 great-grandchildren. Private services were held as he requested. Donations may be made to your favorite charity. |
