O. A. Bushnell

Who was O. A. Bushnell?

O. A. "Ozzy" Bushnell was a microbiologist, historian, novelist, and professor at the University of Hawaiʻi. Descended from contract laborers from Portugal and Norway and a mechanic from Italy, he was born in the working-class neighborhood of Kakaʻako. His friends and classmates in the area were Chinese, Japanese, Portuguese, Hawaiian, and "hapa-haole" [part-white], so he grew up "local," mastering Hawaiian "pidgin" as well as English as his novels attest. As a youngster he developed a love for the cultures of Hawai`i as well as literature and classical music. He graduated in 1934 from the University of Hawaii, where he served as student body president. By 1937 he had earned both his MS and PhD degrees in bacteriology from the University of Wisconsin and later worked and taught at George Washington University Medical School in Washington D.C. He returned to Hawai`i in 1940 working for the Department of Health on Kaua`i and Maui before joining the U.S Army after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Following the war he taught at the University of Hawaii at Mānoa, retiring in 1970 as emeritus professor of medical microbiology and medical history. He served as editor in chief of the journal Pacific Science from 1957 through 1967. Married to Elizabeth Jane Krauskopf in 1943, he had two sons, Andrew and Philip and a daughter, Mahealani.