The faculty, staff and Dean Jerris Hedges, M.D. of the John A. Burns
School of Medicine (JABSOM) at the University of Hawai’i at Manoa are
saddened by the death, in a Hawai’i plane crash, of Dr. Nicholas Palumbo,
DVM, Professor Emeritus of the University of Hawai’i.
Dr. Palumbo, a noted local veterinarian, is remembered at JABSOM as
someone who was very important to the medical school ‘ohana.
Dr. Palumbo began his tenure at the University of Hawai’i in June 1965
as an Associate Veterinarian for the Pacific Biomedical Research Center.
In 1970, Dr. Palumbo was appointed Professor of Comparative Medicine at
JABSOM, and from 1978 to 1990, he served as Chairman of the division of
comparative medicine. In November 1990, upon his retirement, Dr. Palumbo was
awarded the title of Professor Emeritus by the University of Hawai’i’s Board
of Regents.
Dr. Palumbo was important to many of our physician-researchers’ studies
about human disease. He was a co-author in a 1982 Journal of Pediatrics
article about an outbreak of Kawasaki Syndrome/Disease in Hawai’i. (Kawasaki
Disease is a rare illness affecting preschool-aged children, involving a
high fever and other symptoms. For more information about the disease, see:
https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/00001256.htm.)
One of Dr. Palumbo’s co-authors in the Kawasaki disease article, Dr.
Marian Melish, JABSOM Pediatrician, calls Dr. Palumbo “a gifted surgeon”,
who was knowledgeable about physiology in general, not just limited to
animals. She said in the Kawasaki investigation, the researchers were
looking for the cause of Kawasaki disease by searching for its possible
existence in animals.
“He was quite a wonderful colleague who was concerned about the welfare
of animals and advising those who were doing medical research involving
animals,” said Dr. Melish.
‘Tina Shelton is the Director of Communications for the John A. Burns School of Medicine at the University of Hawai’i at Manoa’