THOMAS HAMILTON RICHERT

Thomas Hamilton Richert was born at Pacific Beach, California on October 4, 1909, the youngest of eight children of Margaret McGeorge and Joseph Richert. After graduating from Occidental College, Cal., he received his medical degree from McGill Medical School, Montreal, Canada. He interned at McGill, and then came to Honolulu as an intern at the Queen's Hospital from 1938-40.

Receiving his Hawaii license in 1940, Dr. Richert practiced first on Kauai, as physician for the Lihue Plantation. In 1941 he moved to Honolulu, where he joined the Fronk Clinic as general practitioner; and remained with this group until his retirement in 1977.

In 1935 Tom had married Loretta (Tetta) Turnbull, a noted sports car and speed boat racing driver. The Richerts had two sons, Mark and Lance, and a daughter Tiare (Finney).

Dr. Richert was active in many community and medical organizations. He was treasurer of the Territorial Medical Association, 1952-54, treasurer of the Honolulu County Medical Society, 1956, and secretary the following year. In 1959 he was installed as president of the Honolulu County Medical Society. He continued to be an active member and attended many medical meetings and conventions. In later years he participated in the medical society trauma classes at night.

Tom Richert's life-long interest in marine biology began when he was growing up in southern California; and continued on his arrival in Hawaii, where he became an avid and renowned amateur shell collector. As physician and diver with the Bishop Museum team, he went on numerous expeditions to Australia, Tahiti, Samoa and the Philippines. Dr. Richert even had a shell named after him. An olive shell found on Pitcairn Island was called Olividii Richertii by Dr. Allison Kay of the Bishop Museum staff.

This love of the sea and its treasures was felt by the whole Richert family. Tom was really a family man, and the children learned to dive at an early age. Mrs. Richert also took up scuba diving and the whole family would take off on diving trips around the islands; or off they would go to the sports car races at Kahuku or canoe races at the Outrigger, where Tom often helped out with first aid.

In 1961 Dr. Richert was one of the Honolulu doctors who responded to the Hawaii Medical Association's cry for help for the people of Samoa; and spent a busy month working as a volunteer surgeon in Pago Pago. And in the late 1960's, Tom and another diver were first to alert the Hawaiian community to the proliferation of the Crown of Thorns starfish on local reefs.

Though he retired in 1977, Dr. Richert did not sit in a rocking chair and admire his seashells - in fact, he was busier than ever. He loved to putter around the yard in Dowsett Highlands where his interests included everything from gardening or playing with his grandson to raising bees for honey. At one time he brought home a whole truckload of old bicycle parts from Goodwill, and fixed up bikes for all the kids in the area. Needless to say he was popular with his neighbors.

In the 1980's he continued with his diving expeditions with trips to Bora Bora, the Great Barrier Reef, Palau, Tonga and Tahiti. And in 1984 at the age of 74 he was nominated Diver of the Year! He had looked forward to going on a scuba diving party to the Red Sea in 1985, but was fatally stricken on November 30, 1984.

One of his colleagues spoke of Tom's thoughtfulness which was characteristic of him until the very end: When Dr. Richert was lying on the table in the emergency room, in great pain after a heart attack, he asked that someone phone a doctor in Wahiawa, whose calls he had promised to take that day, to say that he would be unable to help him out - this a half hour before his death!

Tom Richert will be sorely missed by members of the medical and malacological organizations as well as a host of friends, who remember him with affection and admiration.

First Posted: June 2000

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