Dr. Gary Goldberg has been one of our HEPA partners for many years, first joining HEPA in March 2000. Moving here from the Midwest, he fit in to our local community immediately. Soon after he arrived, he assumed leadership of the North Hawaii Community Hospital Emergency Department. He’s been a physician leader there ever since. His genuine kindness and passion to provide the best care to patients made him someone that the entire community valued. His smile lit up the room. Everyone in Waimea knew Dr. Goldberg, and loved him. Many remember him years later because of the way he cared for them in the ED with true compassion. When faced with a challenge in the emergency room, his guiding principle was always “Just do what’s best for the patient.”

In 2015, Dr. Goldberg was named Chief Medical Officer of the Queen’s North Hawaii Community Hospital. In this role, his talents and ideas were brought to an even bigger audience, and he finally accomplished the thing that he had been talking about for over a decade, a new Emergency Department. Gary was a key player in the opening of our brand new, triple-the-size ED in January 2020, which proved to be unknowingly perfectly designed to keep patients and staff as safe as possible in this pandemic.

Dr. Goldberg’s passing was unexpected and left all who knew him in shock. He is greatly missed by all. To honor his memory & all he did for this community, HEPA is accepting donations to our HEPA Education Foundation Scholarship Fund. This fund is used to award scholarships annually to support ongoing advanced education for students in our community.