Dr. Walter Sterling Strode, 83, remembered as a “;gentleman surgeon”; during 49 years of service as a urologist at Straub Clinic & Hospital, died Nov. 12.

He retired in 2004, leaving Straub without a physician named Strode for the first time in nearly a century.

His father, Dr. Joseph E. Strode, was one of Straub's founders and worked there 50 years as a general surgeon until retirement.

Dr. Stephen Chinn, a Straub urologist who worked 17 years with Walter Strode, said he was different from his father.

“;His father was very stern, very strict,”; said Chinn. “;Walter was very laid-back, casual and soft-spoken, but both of them were very much gentlemen surgeons. They really cared for their patients.”;

Chinn said Walter Strode “;was a great mentor to me, a very thoughtful man of very few words, which were always carefully chosen. Everyone had the utmost respect for him.”;

He said several hundred people showed up Tuesday at an impromptu gathering held by Straub's chaplain to honor Walter Strode. It was in Strode Wing, named for his father.

People recalled how Walter Strode would show up on rounds with boxes of manapua for the nursing staff, Chinn said. “;He never had bad words to say about anyone. In 17 years he never raised his voice or said a foul word.”;

Joseph Strode encouraged his son to be a urologist because Straub Clinic had no such specialty at that time, according to a Straub Foundation history.

Walter Strode served as chairman of Straub's urology department and director of the Kidney Stone Center of the Pacific. He was a founder of the Hawaii Health Net in the 1970s, a network of professionals and laymen interested in the future of medicine and a holistic approach to health care.

He was a third-generation kamaaina on his mother's side, born May 5, 1925, in Honolulu.

He graduated from Punahou in 1942, attended Williams College in Massachusetts, did medical training at Washington University in St. Louis, urology training at Tulane University's Ochsner Medical Clinic in Louisiana and his residency at the Queen's Medical Center.

He was a corpsman in the Navy at the end of World War II and served in the Army as a surgeon during the Korean War.

Honolulu Magazine listed him among the “;Best Doctors in America.”;

Strode was an avid tennis player and played bridge up to the end of his life with his wife, Molly.

“;We were enthusiastic bridge players, much like our tennis,”; she said.

She said her husband had a “;wonderful sense of humor”; and a “;wonderful reputation with patients and colleagues, which I treasure.”;

Returning to their Waialae Iki home after a day of surgery, he would pitch in to help with dinner, and “;he would do it joyously,”; she said. “;He created a way of giving without expecting anything in return.”;

Survivors include daughters Mardi Wissmar on the Big Island, Poppy Strode-Elfant and Cay Strode-Mitchell, both of Davis, Calif.; Mary Strode of Sacramento, Calif.; sons David of Honolulu and Michael of Los Angeles; two stepchildren, Toby Long of Honolulu and Amy Tye of Walnut Creek, Calif.; sister Evelyn Van Orsdel of Walnut Creek; and former wife Nancy Strode of Davis.

A celebration of life will be held at 5 p.m. Dec. 6 at Church of the Crossroads. Donations may be made in lieu of flowers to the Straub Foundation, the Heifer Foundation or a charity of personal choice. Casual or aloha attire.