Susan Amelia Kilgore Aoki M.D.

1939 - 2022

Susan Amelia Kilgore Aoki, M.D.
November 20, 1939 - December 2, 2022
Sacramento, California - Susan Amelia Kilgore Aoki, M.D., dearly beloved doctor, wife and mother, passed away on December 2, 2022 after a battle with cancer. She is survived by her loving husband, Thomas T. Aoki, M.D., children Betsy, Kathy, and Carolyn, and grandchildren Kayla, Cid, Sara, and Erin. A strong champion for women entering the medical field, even in her final weeks Dr. Aoki was encouraging women medical students, nurses, and staff to go far in their chosen specialties and to innovate healthcare from the inside out.
Susan was born on November 20, 1939, in Pittsburgh, PA, the third of four children to Ellen and Lee Kilgore (a math teacher and award-winning Westinghouse engineer, respectively). Raised in a rural area, she enjoyed reading, camping, and canoeing. An excellent student, she graduated from Bucknell University in 1961 and Yale Medical School in 1965. At Yale she married Thomas Aoki, a fellow student in 1963. Following internships in New Haven, the pair moved to Japan for two years where Tom served in the US Public Health Service at the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission in Hiroshima, Japan. Susan studied the Japanese language, culture, and arts and had their first daughter there.
They returned to Connecticut for a year of residency training and their second daughter. They then moved to the Boston area where Susan completed training in Infectious Diseases at the University of Massachusetts. She took time out to have her third daughter, then opened a private consulting practice while also working at Leonard Morse Hospital in Natick, Massachusetts and the then-Worcester Hospital in Worcester, Massachusetts.
The family moved to Sacramento in 1984 when Tom accepted the position as Professor and Chief of Endocrinology at the U.C. Davis Medical Center. Susan opened a private consulting practice in Infectious Disease and later worked for the Sacramento Blood Center for five years. Interested in improving healthcare quality, she worked for a year for the Medicare Quality Improvement contractor for the state of California, and the following year, obtained a Master's degree from Dartmouth College.
In retirement, Susan enjoyed gardening, book clubs, Music Circus, quilting, and travel.
Per her wishes, there will be no funeral service though the family may host a memorial at a later date. In lieu of flowers, please donate to the Aoki Diabetes Research Institute at 1935 Stockton Boulevard, Sacramento, California 95816, or a charity of your choice.