Advertisement - Click to support our sponsors.

Surgical pioneer,
‘ordinary man’
Paul Gebauer,
92, dies

Racer Tetta Richert
Broadcaster Robert Loew
More obituaries

---

By Rosemarie Bernardo
Star-Bulletin

Despite his significant contributions to the medical field, Dr. Paul William Gebauer remained humble to family and friends.

"He would maintain that he was an ordinary man," said Gebauer's daughter, Susan Brown. "He had a grace and dignity of him that was quiet, unassuming and wise."

Gebauer, 92, died Monday at Queen's Medical Center. He was born July 2, 1908, in Cleveland, Ohio.

Gebauer graduated from Western Reserve University Medical School in 1933. He was a member of the surgical staff of the Thoracic Surgery Department of St. Luke's Hospital in Cleveland from 1939 to 1941. After serving in the military during World War II, he came to Hawaii in 1946 as the thoracic surgeon at Leahi Hospital.

He helped facilitate the first open-heart surgery using a heart-lung apparatus at Queen's Hospital in December 1959. Gebauer continued to be involved in cardiac surgery through the mid-1960s. He received the Hawaii Heart Association award for distinguished achievement in cardiovascular medicine in June 1966.

He was credited for helping to develop a disc oxygenator, which reduces the time a patient must be on an artificial heart during surgery. He was also recognized for his "Naalehu disease" research, which involved studying hardened arteries in cattle, and for his work in skin grafting of bronchial tubes to treat tuberculosis.

He became an associate professor of surgery at the UH-Manoa medical school in 1967.

In 1970, Gebauer retired at the age of 62. From 1973 to 1975, he was City & County Physician of Honolulu, appointed by Mayor Frank Fasi. He assisted with the establishment of paramedic crews in the city ambulance service.

Long before Dr. Jack Kevorkian made headlines with his stand on assisted suicide, Gebauer believed good medicine isn't necessarily extending life, but finding the courage to fulfill the patient's wishes of letting go, Brown said.

As a child, Brown remembered the times her father would take her along with her brothers and sisters on hospital rounds and visits to patients in plantation camps.

"He was always kind to people," she said.

When Brown would mention her maiden name to local residents, she was often told her father had saved a family member's life.

Gebauer's wife, Lola, said: "He was a people person. He didn't care who you are or what you have. He was my best friend. We had a wonderful life."

Brown, who works as a psychotherapist in Maui, said: "He certainly inspired me to be how I am. I love to help people. I think I got that from him."

He is survived by wife, Lola; sons, Paul Holmes Gebauer and John Mark Gebauer; daughters, Susan G. Brown and Penelope Ann Larsen; and six grandchildren.

Graveside services will be at 9:30 a.m. Monday at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.