William Kashatus

1929 - 2019

William Charles Kashatus, Jr., 90, of Valley Forge and Lake Silkworth, former oncologist on the staffs of several Philadelphia and local hospitals, dean of admissions and professor at Hahnemann University Hospital, died Friday, Nov. 29, 2019, from heart failure.

Dr. Kashatus, a Glen Lyon native who grew up in a working-class family, spent more than 50 years in the health care profession. In addition to his medical practice and teaching, he served as the Mid-Atlantic regional medical director for SmithKline Beecham Clinical Laboratories.

Born on April 23, 1929, to Mary (Matikiewicz) and William C. Kashatus, Sr., Dr. Kashatus graduated from Newport Township High School in 1947. He enrolled at Wilkes College to study chemistry working part-time in his father's coal hauling business. After graduating in 1951, Dr. Kashatus matriculated to Bucknell University where he earned a master's degree in chemistry in 1953.

Drafted into the U.S. Army in 1953, Dr. Kashatus was forced to postpone his medical education. He married his high school sweetheart, Balbina Markiewicz of Sheatown, Newport Township, in 1954. The couple had two children, Ann Stephanie and William III.

After graduating from Hahnemann Medical College in 1959, Dr. Kashatus interned at the Wilkes-Barre General Hospital before returning to Hahnemann to complete his residency in pathology. Appointed director of the clinical laboratory in 1964, he went on to serve Hahnemann in several other positions including vice-chairman of pathology, dean of admissions and professor of internal medicine, pathology and oncology.

Dr. Kashatus was also a prominent educator, winning the prestigious Lindback Award for teaching excellence in 1969. In 1972, he pioneered an innovative, six-year B.S./M.D. program in which a select group of local premed students would spend two years at Wilkes, two years at Hahnemann and then two years doing clinical training at Wilkes-Barre hospitals.

The objective of the program was to reduce the cost and number of years of medical schooling and to graduate a minimum of 25 physicians a year who would return to the Wyoming Valley to practice family medicine. The success of the "Wilkes-Hahnemann" program inspired similar partnerships between other four-year colleges and medical schools.

Dr. Kashatus's true love was the art of practicing medicine. A compassionate caregiver, he understood that a cancer patient's attitude has a significant impact on his illness. He was always positive, though realistic, in his diagnosis. He was careful to answer questions and explain things in an understandable way. His earthy sense of humor almost always left them laughing.

Despite the changing financial landscape of health care, which transformed medicine from a calling to a business and limited patient access to quality care, Dr. Kashatus continued to make house calls and often spent more than an hour with his cancer patients.

Since Dr. Kashatus treated many underprivileged people he did not always bill for his services. Having grown up during the Great Depression he knew what it meant to be poor. When a patient died he did his grieving in private, trying to find solace in his effort to improve the quality of their life for as long as possible.

In his mid-to-late sixties, Dr. Kashatus discovered a new love – his four grandsons. A doting grandfather, he spent countless hours regaling them with humorous stories about his own boyhood, introducing them to his hobbies of boating, coin and stamp collecting and attending many of their school events. He was a well-loved man who will be sorely missed by his family and his patients.

In addition to his wife and children, Dr. Kashatus is survived by daughter-in-law Jacqueline Butler; two sisters, Dorothy Pawloski of Audubon and Maryanne Benner of Pine Barrens, New Jersey; four grandsons, Timothy, Billy, Peter and Benjamin; and his devoted nurse, Mary Ann Ludzia.

Dr. Kashatus's funeral mass and burial were private. He is buried at St. Mary's Cemetery, Hanover Township. Donations may be made to charity of choice.