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Michael S. Hoshiko Edwardsville, IL QCWA # 23186 Chapter 19 |
Michael Starrson Masanori Hoshiko passed away December 26, 2016, at the age of 95, in Longmont, Colorado. Michael was born April 8, 1921, in Surrey, British Columbia, Canada to his mother Toshie and father Tsunehachi Hoshiko, who emigrated from Japan.
Michael was raised on a chicken and strawberry farm. As the oldest boy of five children, Michael was called upon to help his father set dynamite to clear the land of tree stumps. At age 10, when he lost his father to meningitis, he assumed further responsibility for helping his mother run the family farm, especially translating English on her behalf in business negotiations. When the Second World War came, all persons of Japanese ancestry were relocated away from the coast. Michael secured employment as a domestic servant outside Montreal, which shielded him from prison for evading the evacuation order. In 1943 he went to work in the RCA Victor factory as an inspector of military tank radios, for which he received recognition for "Distinguished Service on the Home Production Front."
Michael's education began when he started first grade in a one-room schoolhouse without knowing any English. His mother was committed to her son's education, keeping him in high school despite community pressure for him to leave school to help on the farm. In Montreal, he attended YMCA College and Sir George William University. After the war, with the assistance of the American Friends Service Committee, he obtained a scholarship to Heidelberg College (Ohio) and completed his B.A. in Psychology (1948). In 1949, Michael went on to Bowling Green State University (Ohio) where he obtained his M.A. in Experimental Psychology. He also studied at the University of Kansas and Illinois State University. He worked as a psychologist in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto Medical School (1952-1955). Michael received his PhD in Speech Pathology, Hearing, and Speech Sciences, the first Japanese Canadian to do so, from Purdue University in 1957.
Michael met Patsy "Rose" Dege when he was a graduate student at Illinois State University, and they married on April 7, 1955. In 1957, the couple moved to Carbondale, IL, where they raised their three children. Rose worked as a librarian at Shawnee Library System.
Michael was hired as an Assistant Professor of Speech Pathology and Audiology at Southern Illinois University (SIU)/Carbondale. He helped develop the new department into a significant teaching and research laboratory through grants from the National Institutes of Health, American Cancer Society, and Illinois Department of Mental Health, among others. Michael made many unique innovations at the university, including introducing the first telephone teletypewriter (TTY) communication at SIU, the first biofeedback course and therapy program, and the first personal computer in his department. He retired as Professor Emeritus and Director of the Clinical Center for Speech and Hearing in 1991.
Michael's lifelong interest in radio and electronics was the basis for many of his achievements, beginning in childhood when he taught himself through correspondence courses and library books. He built his first radio when he was about ten years old. He developed many instruments, often incorporating use of radio and sound wave frequencies, including the spectrograph, electromyograph, respirometer, radio telemetry, biomedical electronics, and voiceprint identification into clinical and research applications. He was one of the founders of the Biophysics Engineering Program at SIU, taught voiceprint identification to law enforcement and government agents in the USA and abroad, and was an expert witness in criminal cases. He served as the advisor to the Amateur Radio Club, holding the club license W9UIH and personal licenses in Canada (VE2AAS, VE3DNZ) and in the United States (W9CJW). He was on his radio daily, and was active in the local Shawnee Amateur Radio Association and in the Japanese American Amateur Radio Society.
Michael had a strong entrepreneurial spirit, and bought several houses, which he divided into apartments and rented, performing most of the remodeling work himself. He obtained a real estate license, although he never used it commercially. He was a member of the Carbondale Unitarian Fellowship, holding several leadership positions, and then the First Unitarian Church in Alton, IL, after retirement.
Michael was keenly interested in the history of the Japanese in Canada and America. He wrote many newspaper articles for The New Canadian and the Nikkei Voice. He was instrumental in getting the site of the Japanese-American internment camp in Rohwer, Arkansas, recognized. After he retired, Michael used a grant from the Canadian Redress Foundation to compile, with Rose's skilled assistance, a documentary photo book about the Japanese-Canadian families in the area where he grew up (Who was Who: Pioneer Japanese Families in Delta and Surrey: Family Histories from British Columbia, Canada, ©1998). The book is stored in the vault in Special Collections at the Vancouver Public Library, BC, as well as other libraries.
Michael was a devoted husband, father, son and brother. He loved to travel with his wife and children and took them on many trips, including sabbaticals in 1967 in Baltimore, MD, where he completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Johns Hopkins University in Laryngology, and Vienna, Austria in 1974. Upon retiring, he and Rose created their dream home in Edwardsville, IL, remodeling a house surrounded by nature and trees with its own pond. They loved bird-watching, and every evening Michael fed the Japanese koi fish, which they stocked in their pond. Family visits were a highlight, as the children had moved away across the country and started their own families. Michael maintained close relationships with Rose's extended family in Illinois, frequently visiting and hosting family members. In reflecting on his past, he often lauded his decision to marry Rose as "the best decision of my life." After Rose passed away in 2011, Michael moved to an assisted living facility in Longmont, Colorado near his son Lance, daughter-in-law Rebecca (Becki), and grandson Trenton, who cared for him with frequent visits, loving attention, grace, and humor until he passed.
Michael is survived by two sisters, Eileen Hoshiko in Los Angeles and Yuri Goto, in Pleasanton, CA; he was preceded in death by his brother Tomuo "Tom" (Barbara) Hoshiko and half-sister Mary Shizuko Ono. He is survived by children Cecily "Mitsie" (Dave) Sample of Rochester, MN; Sumi Hoshiko of Moraga, CA; and Lance Hoshiko (Rebecca), of Longmont, CO; and five grandchildren.
SERVICES: A Memorial Service will be held 11:00 AM at the Unitarian Church, 1479 Hampshire, Quincy, IL, followed by a graveside interment at 1:30 at Greenmount Cemetery, 1701 S. 12th St., Quincy IL, June 10, 2017. The memorial service will be conducted by Dr. Rev. Bruce Marshall (Rose's nephew).
Condolences may be expressed online at Hoshikofam@msn.com.
MEMORIALS: In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to American Friends Service Committee, https://www.afsc.org/ or the Japanese American Citizens League https://jacl.org/donate/.
Published in Edwardsville Intelligencer from Feb.24 to Feb.25,2017