Heritage Snapshot: Part 158

Bo Ying Wat, MD (CME Class of 1949) was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, February 15, 1925. Orphaned at age 3, he lived with nine different families before turning 17 in 1942, when he graduated from Hawaiian Mission Academy. He had been a yard boy at the mission compound for $20 a month. During his teen years Bo was home-schooled during the 5th grade, studied shop and agriculture for two years, and spent three to six hours a day herding cattle on horseback. He thought he was going to become a farmer until one of his families said, “No, we have better things for you.” Bo skipped the eighth grade. While in the eleventh grade he started singing in the academy choir. He sang the rest of his life. Because he had been a good student of science, he decided to become a physician. While studying pre-medicine at La Sierra College, Bo worked as a janitor in the Print Shop. In 1944, the Loma Linda College of Medical Evangelists accepted him into its school of medicine. He graduated from CME in 1948 and received his MD degree with his classmates in 1949. At first he wanted to go into obstetrics because it “was a happy type of practice.” But the Loma Linda Sanitarium and Hospital had no residency in OB at the time. Because he had worked in the pathology lab under Carrol S. Small, MD, when he was a sophomore medical student, he applied for an available pathology residency. When Dr. Small asked him to “go down and demonstrate these specimens to the medical students,” he fell in love with teaching. This experience with the class of 1953-A “fanned a lifelong commitment” to teaching. Dr. Wat was a pathologist and member of the Loma Linda faculty since completing his pathology residency at the Loma Linda Sanitarium and Hospital in 1952. In 1962, he became a full professor of pathology. He became director of the undergraduate pathology curriculum until 1992. During his first four decades on the Loma Linda faculty he once estimated that he taught more than 4,500 medical school graduates. Over the years he received many awards and honors: • 1965—Outstanding Teacher, Loma Linda University School of Medicine. • 1968—Outstanding Instruction, Loma Linda University School of Medicine • 1979—Basic Science Teacher of the Year, Walter E. Macpherson Society • 1984—Commencement Address, Loma Linda University School of Medicine • 1990—Directors’ Award, Loma Linda Pathology Medical Group, Inc. • 1993—Honored Alumnus, Alumni Association, Loma Linda University School of Medicine • 1996—President of the Walter E. Macpherson Society • 2002—Distinguished University Service Award, Loma Linda University • 2005—Honored Alumnus, La Sierra College of Arts and Sciences Dr. Wat served as chief of the surgical pathology service from 1975 to 1992 and chief financial officer for the Faculty Pathology Medical Group. This group established the Pathology Endowment Fund which made the educational commitments of the Department of Pathology self-supporting. He also served as a pathology consultant at the Riverside County General Hospital and University Medical Center and the Loma Linda Community Hospital. As Senior Surgical Pathologist, Dr. Wat “retired” in 1992 as Chief of the Surgical Pathology Service at Loma Linda University and continued to work half time as a Professor of Pathology. Married on June 10, 1948, Dr. Wat and his wife, Margaret Lui Wat, had four children and five grandchildren.