Professor of Anatomy (1935 to 1987)

Dr Hashimoto received both his A.B. (1930) and M.A. (1937) from the University of Utah, and received his M.D. from Harvard University in 1934. Dr Hashimoto returned to the University as a Teaching Fellow in the Anatomy Department and remained, as Professor of Anatomy, as the School of Medicine’s longest tenured professor.

Dr Hashimoto was born in Salt Lake City, Utah in 1911 and became the School of Medicine’s longest tenured professor. Dr Hashimoto died in 1987.

Edward I. Hashimoto was known for his simultaneous two-handed anatomical renderings and beloved by students and faculty alike for his compassion and wit. Dr. Hashimoto served as Professor of Anatomy from 1935 to 1987. The portrait of Dr Hashimoto was painted by Alvin Gittins in 1976, and is located on the west wall on the main floor portrait gallery of the Eccles Health Sciences Library.

The Ambidextrous Irishman – Dr. Edward Hashimoto – After the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941, reactions to the Japanese in Utah and across the U.S. varied from threats and bewilderment to discrimination and internment. One of the most popular members of the School of Medicine faculty at that time was Edward Hashimoto, MD. He was the school’s only Japanese-American professor. When he entered his gross anatomy class for the first time after the bombing, his presence was met by a profound silence. Hashimoto walked confidently to the front of the classroom and said, “What are you staring at? I’m Irish. I was home in Dublin at the time!” From then on, Hashimoto, who was known for his ability to draw human figures with both hands simultaneously, was dubbed the “Ambidextrous Irishman”.