MASAO ISHIHAMA

Masao (Mas) was born (May 20, 1929) to Masanobu and Shizuko and raised in Takamatsu Shikoku Japan. He had 4 siblings, 3 younger half-brothers and 1 younger half sister.   He was the last surviving son.  He graduated Takamatsu High School as a 5year student March 1947.  He used to tell us that 1 year of high school was spent grading a dirt runway for war planes during WWII.  His family had an unbroken chain of multiple generations of doctors, including his father and all 3 brothers.  Although Mom said he wanted to go into politics, he followed the family tradition becoming a doctor of internal medicine at the University of Tokyo.   He would always enjoy meeting and talking with people and was very personable.

He moved to the United States in 1958.  He married Asako in November 1960 in Japan, with an earlier ceremony in California.   Mom always joked that her Mother enticed Dad to visit with her authentic Japanese home cooking.  They had 3 children, Linda, Craig, and Amy and 6 grandkids.  Craig passed away in 2017.   For their honeymoon, they drove to Yellowstone and, also toured Japan following the Japanese wedding ceremony.

He would always enjoy travelling and seeing new things, often by car, but also on Cruises and Tours.   They visited Japan, Hawaii, Grand Canyon, Bryce, Zion, Vancouver, Banff, Calgary, New York, Washington DC, Alaska, Australia, the Panama Canal, Vermont, Maine, Florida, and many other locations.  Even travelling to Hokkaido's snow festival in his 70's.  Every other year for about 20years, they travelled with the grandkids to Maui Hawaii to a timeshare, he had purchased for everyone.  For Dad's 90 ^th birthday, the family took a trip to Groveland and for Mom's 90 ^th we went to San Luis Obispo.   Before that we had a holiday family trip to Cayucos in 2016.

He did residency at Santa Monica hospital, in French Camp, CA and White Memorial.   Later, he was associated with Beverly Hospital and White Memorial, and he worked at a practice with several other doctors in Montebello where they had purchased a home.  Mas started his own practice in Monterey Park, CA, which continued for approximately 20years.   He sold his practice to another doctor in the early 1990's but realized he wasn't ready to completely retire.  He continued working part time as a doctor for another 10 years with the last few years at Chino Men's Correctional institute before retiring in the early 2000's.

After Montebello, they bought a home in Pasadena so his kids could go to San Marino schools.   He was a very firm believer in education and schooling.   He did not understand summer vacation so his kids always attended summer school or some summer program.   His grandkids also received his lecture on the importance of a good education.  They continued to live in the Pasadena home for around 49 years, until his death.  They also had second homes in Huntington Beach and Henderson, NV, as well as a cabin in Crestline and a couple of timeshares.

Mas began investing in real estate in the 1970's.   Since retirement, Mas had continued as a full-time real estate investor which was now the primary source of family income and family business.  He loved making his spreadsheets in Excel which was a new skill he had to learn.   Computers were both handy and extremely frustrating to him.

He enjoyed swimming and put in pools at both the Montebello and Pasadena home.   He taught his kids how to swim at a young age.  He also loved boating and fishing.  He had purchased a small boat to boat and fish at Silverwood Lake, which was near the cabin in Crestline.   We would also fish, row, swim, and paddleboat at Lake Gregory, which we could see from the cabin.  And in the winter, we would go sledding down the driveway or nearby hills.  He later had a friend, Dr. Guthrie, teach us all how to water ski at Lake Havasu.  Then he bought a faster, flashy ski boat which we enjoyed for many years.  Although he never mastered backing up the boat trailer, we did enjoy a lot of time on his various boats.  (There were always several trips up & down the ramp to get the trailer and boat in straight, or relatively straight.)  We got a houseboat a few summers in Havasu and Lake Mead, from which we towed the "ski boat".    We would moor for the night and water ski and play during the day.   After we were grown, he bought a large fishing boat which he kept at the Long Beach Marina.  He would fish with several friends that also enjoyed ocean fishing.  He also took fishing trips to Mexico, Canada, and Alaska.   The Alaska trip included a raft float down the river, fishing during the day for salmon and trout and cooking the catch for dinner over a fire.   He said those were the most delicious fish he had ever eaten and that he understood why the Mosquito was the Alaska state bird.   From the Canada fishing trip, he brought home a mounted trophy fish which he displayed at his Huntington Beach home.

The second home in Huntington Harbor had a boat slip, so he could just walk down the dock to putter around on the boat.   He taught some of his grandkids to fish from that dock.   Lots of family time was spent at the Huntington beach home and, also at the Pasadena home.   The grandkids enjoyed swimming in the pool for most of the day, even eating lunch by poolside, feet in the water.   Or hanging out on the beach or boat dock.  Mom and Dad didn't swim as much as they used to but they would still join in occasionally or enjoy watching.   And Dad would always include a grilled steak dinner one night on those visits.

He would continue to take afternoon or evening walks around the neighborhood, chat with neighbors, take care of the pool and yard, and check on his investment properties throughout his life.   His newest challenge was Facetiming with the grandkids.

Masao will be missed but we will celebrate the full life he led.   We will always carry his memory in our hearts.

Services will be held privately.