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(Hypertension. 2009;54:179.)
© 2009 American Heart Association, Inc.

In Memoriam

Akira Takeshita (1940–2009)

Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, Kyushu University Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Fukuoka, Japan

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Akira Takeshita, a great cardiologist, scientist, and mentor, passed away on March 15, 2009, after a valiant struggle with cancer.

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Dr Takeshita was raised in Kumamoto, Japan. He received his medical degree from the Kyushu University in Fukuoka, Japan, in 1965, after which he completed his residency training at Tachikawa US Military Hospital and Mount Sinai Hospital in Cleveland, Ohio. In 1970–1973, he was a cardiology fellow at University of Iowa, where he spent 1 year in research with Dr Allyn Mark. After returning to Kyushu University for a few years, he rejoined the Cardiovascular Division in the Department of Internal Medicine at the University of Iowa in 1976. There he was introduced to research on neural control of circulation and on vascular function and structure, which would later become his lifelong research interests.^1,2 He spent 4 years in Iowa as an assistant professor and came back to Kyushu University in 1980. He was promoted to professor at the Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, Kyushu University, in 1990 and had since chaired the department until his mandatory retirement in 2003. He remained active until last year in training young physicians at Iizuka Hospital and Saiseikai Futsukaichi Hospital in Fukuoka, despite the fact that he was fighting an incurable illness.

The years he spent in the United States working with colleagues at the University of Iowa, including Drs Allyn Mark, Frank Abboud, Donald Heistad, and Michael Brody, deeply impacted his academic life. Throughout his career, his research interest had focused on neural . . . [Full Text of this Article]