Posted on: Sunday, June 24, 2001

James W. Bass, former Tripler pediatrics chief, dead at 71

By Karen Blakeman
Advertiser Staff Writer

Dr. James Willis Bass, a longtime Hawai'i pediatrician and a retired Army colonel, died June 12 after a long illness. He was 71.

Doctors at Tripler Medical Center praised their late colleague as a "physician, soldier and scholar" and as "a world-renowned expert in pediatrics and pediatric infections."

Bass, who was born in Louisiana in 1930, joined the Army in 1956 and graduated the following year from Louisiana State University School of Medicine. He was assigned to Hawai'i in 1968 as assistant chief of pediatrics at Tripler. The following year he became pediatrics chief.

From 1975 to 1981, he served as chief of pediatrics at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, as consultant in pediatrics to the surgeon general of the Army, and as founding chairman and professor of pediatrics at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Md.

He returned to Hawai'i in 1981 as chief of pediatrics at Tripler and continued to work as senior medical consultant from 1994 until shortly before his death.

Bass is survived by his wife, Mary Beverly; daughters, Paulet Wingers and Brian Ho; brother, Jerry; and three grandchildren.

A memorial service will be held today at 2 p.m. at St. Andrew's Cathedral. A reception will follow at the old Tripler Officer's Club.

An inurnment ceremony will be held at 10:30 a.m. July 17 at National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.

The family is hoping to establish a memorial scholarship in Bass' name. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to 469 Ena Road #1901, Honolulu, HI 96815.