Events
Celebration of Life
Grand America Hotel, 555 Main Street, Salt Lake City, UtahPlease RSVP to tracey@heartmountain.org
Saturday Nov 9, 2024 4:00 PM - 7:00 PM
William Iyeo Higuchi, a research pioneer in the pharmaceutical sciences at the universities of Michigan and Utah, died Friday, May 10, at his home in Salt Lake City, Utah. He was 93.
Born in San Jose, California, on March 16, 1931, Bill was the son of immigrants from the southern Japanese island of Kyushu. The family owned a 14.25-acre farm on which they grew raspberries and other fruit.
The family was forced to sell the farm following the attack by the Imperial Japanese government on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. Bill remembered his mother burning Japanese memorabilia to prevent suspicion of divided loyalties at the start of the U.S. participation in World War II.
Bill, his parents, an older brother and his younger sister were sent first to the Santa Anita Assembly Center in Arcadia, Calif., and then to the Heart Mountain, Wyo., incarceration camp in September 1942. He would spend the next three years at Heart Mountain, where he excelled in school and met his future wife, Setsuko Saito, in the camp’s makeshift high school.
After the war, Bill returned to San Jose with his parents and sister, Emily. He graduated from San Jose High School and San Jose State University.
While completing his Ph.D. in physical chemistry at the University of California at Berkeley, he encountered Setsuko Saito, his former Heart Mountain classmate. The couple soon began dating and married in 1956. They would have four children — Kenneth, who died in 1986, Shirley Ann, Robert and John.
Setsuko Saito Higuchi died in April 2005 at the age of 74.
In 1959, Bill joined the faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where his older brother Takeru was a faculty member. He moved to the University of Michigan in 1962.
Bill’s reputation as an innovator in pharmaceutical sciences grew during his tenure at Michigan, leading to his recruitment to be the head of the Department of Pharmaceutics and Pharmaceutical Chemistry at the University of Utah in 1982.
While at both universities, Bill mentored hundreds of doctoral students from around the world. This support would lead to him being awarded the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Ray with Neck Ribbon, from the Japanese government in 2012.
Bill received dozens of honors for his work in pharmaceutical sciences, including the Ebert Prize, the highest honor bestowed by the American Pharmaceutical Association. He received honorary doctorate degrees from the University of Michigan, where there is an endowed chair in pharmaceutical sciences bearing his name, and the University of Utah in 2023.
Along with his work in academia, Bill founded or cofounded four pharmaceutical companies — TheraTech, Lipocine, Spriasoand Aciont. TheraTech is now part of international pharmaceutical giant Abbvie, while Lipocine is traded on the Nasdaq exchange.
In his later years, Bill was an active and generous supporter of the Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation, which operates a museum and conference center on the site of where Higuchi, his wife, and 14,000 other Japanese Americans were unjustly imprisoned during World War II. His daughter, Shirley Ann, is now chair of the foundation.
Bill was predeceased by his wife Setsuko and his oldest son, Kenneth. Surviving family members include his daughterShirley Ann (Ray Locker), sons Robert (Rebecca Schmitt) and John, grandchildren William (Angeline) Collier and Adele (Derek) Collier Dodd, Tace (Matt Rutledge) and Rayna Higuchi, two great grandchildren, Amelia and William Collier, soon-to-be-born great granddaughter Dodd, sister Emily Higuchi Filling, sister in law Kathleen Saito Yuille, and multiple nieces and nephews.
Plans for a memorial service will be announced in the future.
The family requests that in lieu of flowers koden or memorials be made in his memory to the Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation, 1539 Road 19, Powell, WY 82435 or at heartmountain.org.
Guestbook/Condolences
We have respect for Bill’s great scientific accomplishments and we also respect his contribution in educating many of the next generation of pharmaceutical scientists. We knew Bill as a friend, have much affection for him and we will miss him.
Dear Higuchi Family,
My sincere condolences to you and your families. Dr. Higuchi was a pioneer in the modern science of pharmaceutics and had a profound impact on training many successful scientists. I personally benefited from his leadership, as a pharmacy student at the University of Utah College of Pharmacy in the mid to late 1980s and as a graduate student in Pharmaceutics and Pharmaceutical Chemistry Department in the early to mid-1990s. He, as Department Chair at the time, was my first contact in the department. His legacy will live on and he will be missed.
Sincerely,
Hamid Ghandehari, PhD
Chair, Molecular Pharmaceutics
To Professor Dr. William I. Higuchi
I have been shocked to hear from a friend that you, a great teacher and scientist, have passed away and gone to heaven. I am deeply grateful to you for accepting me as a postdoctoral researcher in your laboratory at the University of Utah in 1985, when I was still an inexperienced researcher, and for special supporting me as a collaborator for the next 20 years. My research group and me could develop special hydroxyapatite drug delivery system research under your excellent advice. My family and myself will never forget Dr. Higuchi's remarkable life as a great pharmaceutical researcher, his research achievements, and his special kind personality.
My deepest condolences to you and your family.
Makoto, Kuniko, Yuta Otsuka, and Eri Prendergast
A tremendous life of will and consequence, family and legacy. We are sending our love and thoughts as you reflect on and celebrate his life.
Dear Shirley, Higuchi Family and Friends,
I was deeply saddened to hear about the passing of Dr. Higuchi and I share your sorrow. I am forever grateful to Dr. Higuchi for enabling me to work with Shirley and the Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation. Whenever I met him, he was supportive and gave me encouragement. His legacy of commitment and behind the scenes support will continue for generations.
With deepest condolences,
Julie Abo
Dear Shirley, what a remarkable person Dr. Higuchi was. We are so sorry for your loss. In this age of despair, it is so refreshing to see such a wonderful person who was able to soar above all odds. May God bless you, your family and his legacy. Keith & Pat Watters
Dear Shirley, Higuchi family. The family lost a royalty man, and you have lost a beloved father, a grandfather to his grandchildren.
I, Malia Pomale a primary caregiver to Dr William Higuchi for almost two years. During my time I found out he is a great esteem with honor. From what I witness your father Dr William Higuchi a pioneer in modern science.
I am so sorry for your loss. Your father won't be forgotten, he will always remain in our hearts and thoughts. May his memories bring you comfort and peace.
Malia Pomale.
Dr. Higuchi was truly one of the greatest of the Greatest Generation. His personal success, his fortitude and his success as patriarch of an accomplished family is all the more significant when you consider that he suffered structural unfairness as a child and adolescent. Instead of growing up to resent the prejudice and unkind treatment he endured based on his national origin, he rose above the wrongful treatment of his youth and avenged it a hundredfold with unmatched leadership. Rest in peace, Sir. You earned it.
He was always so kind and generous to me when I was younger. I am very sad to hear of his passing and send all my condolences.
I am sad to hear of Dr Higuchi’s passing. As one of his students, he was a great example and leader. His influence on my life will be with me forever.