Name: Elton Bacon
Age: 42
Position: Director of orthotics, Shriners Hospital for Children
First job: Selling Star-Bulletin in Chinatown
Favorite pastimes: Table tennis, volleyball, softball

A new focus on orthotics

Elton Bacon will oversee the design and construction of the Shriners Hospital's separate orthotics department scheduled for completion at the end of this year.

He is the hospital's first director of orthotics.

Bacon also will supervise wheelchair services and the design, fabrication, fit and modification of orthopedic appliances, such as leg braces and body jackets.

"We are converting the old research building (at 1310 Punahou St.)," Bacon said.

During six years in the U.S. Army, Bacon got orthotics training at the Fitzsimmons Army Medical Center in Denver, Ft. Sill, Okla. and Ft. Wainwright in Alaska. For the past 19 years, he has worked in orthotics at Tripler Army Medical Center.

The Honolulu Shriners Hospital has provided free surgical and rehabilitative services to more than 16,000 children since 1923.

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By Jerry Tune, Star-Bulletin