Clayton Chong, MD, MPH

Dr. Clayton Chong was born in Hilo, HI, and as a child helped his family raise cattle, but was constantly getting into “trouble” (such a rascal!). He caused havoc on the Big Island until he moved to Oahu as a 7th grade boarder at Kamehameha School, graduating in 1972.

He was accepted by the University of Hawaii’s John A. Burns School of Medicine in 1976, earning his medical degree in 1980 and completing his internal medicine residency there in 1981. During his medical school and residency training, he had seen many patients with cancer suffer and was drawn toward the rapidly evolving and challenging field of cancer medicine. He chose to pursue further education and training in medical oncology at the prestigious MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas, completing his fellowship training in 1985 and remaining on the MD Anderson faculty for several years before moving back to Hawaii 1989 where he built his legacy over the next 34 years.

Dr. Chong was active in teaching and research as a clinical faculty member of the University of Hawaii’s medical school while maintaining a busy oncology practice. He sat on the Executive Board of Saint Francis Hospital and was a Queen’s Hospital trustee, medical director, and chief of the Department of Oncology. He was a recipient of numerous awards including the Queen’s Physician of the Year, and in 2014 received the prestigious O’o award from the Native Hawaiian Chamber of Commerce. During this period, he also earned a Master of Public Health degree from Harvard University.

Dr. Chong’s passion to provide excellence in oncology care extended beyond each individual patient, and he strove to improve cancer care for the state of Hawaii. He passed away in November, 2022, and will be dearly missed.

His HOI colleagues