UCLA Health Sciences Nobuyaki Kawata
By Marcelle Richards
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
After a 22-year career at UCLA, cardiologist and clinical
professor of medicine Nobuyaki Kawata died March 27 from
complications due to chronic lung disease.
Over the span of his 81 years, he not only built a prestigious
reputation at UCLA, but he also built relationships with colleagues
and patients that now ring of fond memories.
“I have always joked with people that he was almost
literally a third grandfather to me,” said executive director
of University Cardiovascular Medical Group Eric Marton, who worked
with Kawata for three years.
“The amazing thing about Dr. Kawata is that he was a
cardiologist, world renowned, but he always was committed to doing
what was ethical and what was right,” he continued.
Academically, Kawata left his mark at UCLA as a six-time winner
of the clinical faulty teaching award.
He helped develop the Heart Failure and Heart Transplant
Program, where more than 1,100 transplants have been performed
since 1984.
The University Cardiovascular Medical Group is also
Kawata’s doing, along with the Chizuko Kawata Chair in
Cardiology, an endowed position named after his first wife.
Marton recalls a dinner party for chair of cardiology James
Weiss. Weiss invited Kawata and presented him with a thick
leather-bound book.
“What was in the book was all of the research publications
that had been made possible thanks to his contributions,”
Marton said. “The funny thing was that Dr. Kawata
didn’t really realize just how much research came out of
that.”
Many of Kawata’s students are now in the medical
practice.
“I am now hoping to care for some of his patients he has
taken care of for over 40 years,” said Michelle Hamilton, who
spent the last 15 years working with him. She now co-directs the
the Heart Failure Program.
Hamilton pursued a career in clinical research and teaching
patient care with Kawata’s influence.
“He set an example for an innumerable amount of physicians
who have trained under him,” she said.
Kawata’s son-in-law, Jon Kobashigawa, merged family and
business ties with the well-known doctor.
After meeting Kawata’s daughter at Stanford, he trained at
UCLA and joined Kawata in his practice. Kobashigawa is the medical
director of the Heart Transplant Program and clinical professor in
cardiology.
“(Kawata) was one of those great old time practitioners
for more than 20 years by the time I joined him,” Kobashigawa
said. “He was on call 24/7, including holidays.”
Kawata’s status as a role model traces back to his roots
in the Japanese American community.
His family was interned during World War II, which later
inspired him to create the Japanese American Medical Association.
The association recently honored him for distinguished service.
Kobashigawa, who heard of his father-in-law’s reputation
growing up, recalls that much of the Japanese American community
sought him out for care.
“I grew up in the Japanese American community … and he
was very well known,” Kobashigawa said. “He was an icon
and was well-respected for being a great doctor. At that time the
name just filled a lot of respect.”
A Californian his whole life, Kawata lived in Bel Air and earned
his medical degree from UC San Francisco in 1949.
He is survived by his second wife, two children and five
grandchildren.