HAROLD SEXTON /
HALL OF FAME SWIMMER /
1914-2003

Navy doctor, longtime
pediatrician loved the water

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By Dave Reardon
dreardon@starbulletin.com

Dr. Harold Sexton, one of Hawaii's most outstanding swimmers and a pediatrician at Straub for 30 years, died last Friday. He was 88.

Sexton captained the swim teams at Punahou, Menlo College and the University of Oregon. He began swimming in masters competition in 1962 with the Humuhumunukunukuapuaa Swim Club. He set numerous age-group records and was a multiple medal winner in the Aloha State Games. Most recently, he was ranked sixth in the world in the 50 freestyle for ages 85-89.

Sexton was inducted into the Punahou Athletic Hall of Fame in 1995, and was one of the initial inductees to the Hawaii Swimming Hall of Fame last year.

Swimming coach Al Minn remembers Sexton as a warm person who loved the water.

"He was a very friendly individual, very helpful, never grumbled," Minn said. "He put a pacemaker in one day, and two days later he was back swimming. I asked him if he should be resting, and he just said he'd have lots of time to rest later.

"I know he did a lot of good things in his life."

Sexton, who graduated from Tufts Medical School in 1941, was a resident at Queen's when Pearl Harbor was attacked on Dec. 7, 1941. He set up a blood collection center that day. Sexton soon joined the Navy, and was the ship's doctor aboard the USS Guadeloupe, which campaigned in the Pacific.

Upon his honorable discharge, Sexton returned to Hilo, where he was born, and joined the practice of his father, Dr. Leo Lloyd Sexton.

When his father died in 1949, Sexton joined Straub, where he worked for all but one year (when he was a resident in Oakland, Calif.) until retiring in 1980.

After retirement he became a commercial fisherman.

He is survived by his wife of 61 years, Audrey; sons Kenneth of Salem, Ore. and James of Honolulu, daughter Marilyn of Denver, and five grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Services will be Tuesday at 4 p.m. at Hawaiian Mission Children's Society Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to HMCS or One Kalakaua Senior Living Foundation.