Walter Quisenberry, Health director, dead at 90
By Shayna Coleon
Advertiser Staff Writer
Dr. Walter Brown Quisenberry, former state Department of Health director and well-known figure in the public health sector, died Saturday of osteoporosis. He was 90.
Quisenberry was born in Purman, Missouri, on June 24, 1912 and moved to Hawai'i in 1947.
Dr. Walter Brown Quisenberry always wanted to be a doctor, his wife Evalynn Lee Quisenberry said.
In 1949, Quisenberry opened a clinic on Punchbowl Street that was the only one in Hawai'i doing Pap smears, said his wife, Evalynn Lee Quisenberry.
"He wanted to be a doctor since he was 4 years old," Evalynn said. "He was really sick and had diphtheria, and a doctor came on horseback for 11 miles to his family's farm ... he was so impressed with that doctor."
Terry Quisenberry, Quisenberry's son, said his father's goal to become a doctor took sharper focus at age 9 when a childhood friend died of leukemia.
"That was a really striking thing for dad," Terry said. "Dad never knew what his friend died of until he figured it out when he became a doctor."
Quisenberry graduated with a medical degree from Loma Linda University in 1941 and then joined the U.S. Public Health Service in Maryland where he received a master's degree in public health from Johns Hopkins University.
When he came to Hawai'i, Quisenberry became a clinic physician for the state's Department of Health, and in 1963, he became the deputy director of the department.
In 1966, former Gov. John Burns chose Quisenberry to be the state's Department of Health director.
Evalynn, who met Quisenberry in a hospital when she was 17, said they complimented each other.
"I'm really going to miss his guidance," Evalynn said.
In addition to his wife and son, Quisenberry is survived by daughters Linda Green of Honolulu and Ann Jane Zahradnik of British Columbia, sister Dorothy Ray of California, and six grandchildren.
Services are pending. The family prefers that memorial contributions go to the Hawai'i Cancer Society.
