Noted doctor Erida Reichert Klemmer dies
Advertiser Staff
Erida Reichert Klemmer, the first woman chief resident at the Queen's Medical Center and an advocate for men and women with Hansen's disease, died Monday of cancer.
Reichert was born in San Francisco, and traveled to Honolulu every other summer with her family. She attended Katherine Delmar Burke School for Girls, the University of California and Stanford University. She graduated from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in 1953.
Erida Reichert was an advocate for those suffering from Hansen's disease.
But Reichert is best known for her work as facility director and medical administrator of the Hansen's disease program within the State Department of Health, where she worked hard to destigmatize the disease, said her son, Fred Klemmer.
Dick Korsak, who knew Reichert for more than 25 years, said she was a dogmatic, thorough and honest individual.
"Her intense care for the people she took care of made her a special physician. She loved her patients so much and worked for their rights at whatever cost," said Korsak.
Along with the assistance of Island businessmen, Reichert lobbied the state to allow for more openness at Hale Mohalu and Kalaupapa for patients to travel and for family and friends to visit.
Kalaupapa postmaster Kuulei Bell said Reichert was invaluable to the people of Kalaupapa.
"We called her mommy. She always went the extra mile whenever anyone needed anything, she was such a special person," Bell said. "All of the patients really loved her."
From 1966-71, Reichert served as medical coordinator of the community studies on pesticides for the University of Hawai'i's Pacific Biomedical Research Center, and from 1967-76 she was a clinical instructor of pharmacology at the University of Hawai'i School of Medicine.
Reichert helped set up Hawai'i's disaster response system and the statewide emergency medical services system when she was chief of the emergency health branch at the State Department of Health.
And in 1979, she returned once again to become the chief of the Department of Health's Hansen's disease program, serving as physician at Hale Mohalu, making frequent trips to Kalaupapa, and directing inpatient and outpatient services for the entire program.
She published a number of papers on the treatment of leprosy in Hawai'i's multicultural community.
She is survived by her two sons, Fred Klemmer and E. Howard L. Klemmer; a sister, Susan Leet Reichert Gortner; and four grandchildren.
Services will be private. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations be made to the Child and Family Service Honolulu Gerontology Program in Dr. Erida Reichert's memory: Child and Family Services, Attn. Gerontology Caregiver Respite, 200 North Vineyard Blvd., Building B, Honolulu, HI 96817.
