Kekuni Blaisdell

Richard Kekuni Akana Blaisdell (March 11, 1925 – February 12, 2016), was professor emeritus of medicine at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa in Honolulu, and a longtime organizer in the Hawaiian Sovereignty Movement.

Richard Kekuni Akana was born March 11, 1925, to Marguerite Nameleonalani Piltz and James Keli‘ikauahi Akana.

His mother married William Kaha‘i Blaisdell in 1940.

A Graduate of the Kamehameha School for Boys in 1942, and a classmate of former U.S. Senator Daniel K. Akaka during World War II, Blaisdell was awarded a BA cum laude from the University of Redlands in 1945 (Class Officer, Football Team), a classmate of Warren Christopher, Secretary of State for President Clinton, and an MD from the University of Chicago School of Medicine in 1948.

After an Osler medical internship at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1949, he served as a medical resident on the Tulane Medical Service of Charity Hospital in New Orleans, Louisiana.

In 1950-1954, he was in the US Army Medical Corps, as an investigator at the Climatic Research Laboratory in Lawrence, Massachusetts.

He served as a battalion surgeon in Korea and a medical officer (Internist, US Army 343 Army Hosp) in Koizumi, Japan and Taiwan.

In 1954-1955, he became an instructor in pathology at Duke University Hospital in Durham, North Carolina.

He then returned to the University of Chicago in 1955 to complete a fellowship in hematology (research on iron enzymes and preleukemia), and he was appointed to the faculty as instructor in 1957 and assistant professor of medicine in 1958.

In 1959, he was appointed Chief of Hematology and Research Associate at the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, where he did research on anemia, leukopenia, myelodysplasia in atomic bomb survivors, and adopted Mitsunori, a Japanese orphan.

He returned to the University of Chicago in 1961-1966 as an assistant professor of medicine.

His research was on experimental splenic hemolytic anemia and myelodysplasia.

In 1962, Blaisdell married Irene Hiroko Saito, RN, in Chicago, IL.

with adopted Mitsunori as ring boy.

The couple's only daughter, Helen Kaleleonalani Blaisdell, was born in Chicago.

Eventually, the family moved back to Hawaiʻi and settled in Nuʻuanu, Oʻahu.

In 1965, while in Chicago, Blaisdell received the national Lederle Medical Faculty Teaching Award, and thus became known to Dean Windsor Cutting, former Stanford Medical School dean and newly appointed first dean of the University of Hawaii School of Medicine.

He was also the Founding Chair, of the Department of Medicine at the University of Hawaiʻi John A. Burns School of Medicine in 1966.

In 1966, Blaisdell became the first Professor and Chair of the Department of Medicine at the newly established University of Hawaiʻi School of Medicine.1,2 He and his wife joined others in lobbying for a four-year medical school.

He continued platelet atherosclerosis research.

He served as an East-West Center medical consultant in the Trust Territory of the Pacific, 1968–1970, and as a University of Hawaiʻi teaching consultant on Okinawa, 1967-1974.

During sabbatical years, Blaisdell was a visiting professor of medicine at Rutgers Medical School in 1969 and Harvard Medical School in 1979.

In 1970-1977, Blaisdell was appointed, along with served with Mary Kawena Puku'i, to the University of Hawai'i Committee for the Preservation of Hawaiian Language, Art and Culture; in 1972-1976, a member of the University of Hawai'i Native Hawaiian Students Committee, Program and Hawaiian Scholars Program.

1970 Blaisdell served on the Hui Hanai (Queen Lili'uokalanai Children's Center Auxiliary) Board of Directors, as president, 1980-1982.

He worked on the Nana I ke Kumu (Look to the Source) Book Committee, 1972–1979; and Queen's Songbook Committee, 1980-1990.2

In 1973, Blaisdell was named Ha'awi 'Ike Akea Outstanding Professor at the University of Hawaii School of Medicine.1,2

In 1974 Blaidell was named Kamehameha Schools Alumnus of the year.2

In 1975, Blaisdell received the Kaiser Teaching Award of the University of Hawai'i School of Medicine.2

Blaisdell was the co-founder of an organization of Hawaiian health professionals called, E Ola Mau in 1984.

He served on the 1986-1988 University of Hawai'i System Ka'u (Hawaiian Studies) Task Force and, in 1987-1989, as acting interim director of the then-created University of Hawaiʻi Center for Hawaiian Studies.2

1990 Living Treasure Award.

The Living Treasures of Hawaiʻi program was created by the Buddhist temple Honpa Hongwanji Mission of Hawaii to honor residents of Hawaii.

The criteria for selection are, "First, the designee must demonstrate continuous growth in his or her field; second, the potential Living Treasure must have made significant contributions toward a more humane and fraternal society (and this perhaps is the most important criteria); and finally, he or she must have shown an on-going striving for excellence and a high level of accomplishment."

Honorees are nominated by members of the general public by August 1 of each year, and chosen by a committee designated by the temple.

He was the convener for the 1993 Kanaka Maoli People's Tribunal, which documented U.S. abuses throughout all major islands in great detail before an international panel of judges, and the primary organizer of Ka Pākaukau (literally, "the Table"), an ongoing forum for dialogue surrounding Kānaka Maoli sovereignty and Hawaiian independence.

1997. Asian and Pacific Island American Health Forum Lifetime Achievement Award in San Francisco

1998. Ahahui O na Kauka, charter member, board member.

2000. University of Chicago Alumni Community Service Award.

2001. Consultant, Native Hawaiian Center of Excellence, Dept of Native Hawaiian Health, University of Hawaii JABSOM.

Blaidell died at the age of 90 from respiratory failure in Queen's Medical Center on February 12, 2016.