‘People’s doctor’
championed
underdog causes

Duke Cho Choy, known as the "people's doctor," gave free medical services to the needy and was a champion of the underdog during the historic land struggles in Chinatown and Kalama Valley.

Dr. Kekuni Blaisdell, founding chairman of the University of Hawaii's medical department, said Choy was a model for everyone.

"He was a hero. He was a giant, extraordinary. And very unorthodox -- doctors aren't supposed to be this way."

Choy, 86, died Feb. 25 at his home in Honolulu. His family initially did not plan a memorial service, but decided to hold one after numerous requests. The service will be held at Central Union Church at 10:30 a.m. March 24, preceded by visitation at 9:30 a.m.

What made Choy extraordinary was "a strong moral conscience, a sense of justice, where you have to correct wrongs because we have a responsibility," said Blaisdell, a native Hawaiian activist. "It's basic human compassion," and Choy had plenty of it.

One of his daughters, Patti Choy of Brooklyn, N.Y., said her father, a pediatrician, founded the Third Arm, a free medical clinic in Chinatown in the 1970s and '80s. He also gave free medical service at Ota Camp in Waipahu, at the Hawaii State Prison and to anyone who could not afford it.

He was one of the only doctors at the time to treat welfare patients, she said.

The Third Arm led to his involvement with the People Against Chinatown Eviction, which opposed a rehabilitation project that would have forced poor people out of the downtown district.

Among other causes he championed, Choy formed a committee to bring war-injured Vietnamese children to Hawaii for treatment, and organized the Physicians for Social Responsibility in opposition to the Vietnam War.

He also joined the sanctuary movement at the Church of the Crossroads and was a draft counselor, his daughter said.

UH historian and community activist Marion Kelly said Choy was involved in the Save Our Surf movement, founded by her husband, John Kelly Jr., in the late 1960s to prevent offshore development at Magic Island and other locations.

Choy was also a cherished lifetime friend to the Kellys. He made "a better life for everyone with whom he came in contact. ... He was always helping people. That seemed to be his mission in life, and he took it seriously," Kelly said.

Blaisdell said Choy was a key figure in urging other doctors to support the founding of the UH medical school. Choy was chief resident at the University of Chicago in 1947, when Blaisdell was a student there. He found Choy to be "a superb teacher, an excellent clinician, with warm compassion for his patients and young students."

Choy was quiet, soft-spoken and "down to earth," learning how to knit from his nurses during lunch so he would not feel left out, Patti Choy said.

He loved making stationery using flowers he dried, tried tap dancing and folk guitar playing, and was a master at one-eyed pingpong after he lost vision in one eye from a stroke in 2000.

His volunteer activities included helping Big Brothers of Hawaii, the Waikiki Drug Clinic, hospice care and the First Korean Methodist Church, where he was an active layman.

Choy is also survived by son Glenn Choy; daughters Diane Choy Fujimura, Peggy Choy and Shelley Choy of Honolulu; sister Marian Kim of Honolulu; and three grandchildren.