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IN MEMORIAM
C. Kees Mahutte, M.D., Ph.D.
Professor of Medicine
UC Irvine
1944 – 2009
C. Kees Mahutte, Professor of Medicine and Chief of the Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine Section at the Long Beach Veterans Administration Healthcare System died suddenly on February 4, 2009 when playing racquetball Kees was best known as an athletic gentleman with an optimistic outlook in life. He was well rounded in philosophy, literature and art.
Kees majored in Mathematics and Physics at the University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada obtaining his B.Sc. degree with honors before going on to do graduate work in Theoretical Physics at the University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. He earned his Ph.D. in 1971. He received the National Research Council Post doctorate Fellowship Award, but he declined in order to pursue a career in Medicine at McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. He earned his M.D. degree in 1974, and completed his postgraduate training in Respiratory Medicine in 1979. He was a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, Canada, and of the American College of Chest Physicians.
Kees was recruited to serve as the first director of the Medical Intensive Care Unit (MICU) at the VA Long Beach Healthcare System, Long Beach in 1980. In 1989 Kees was appointed to serve as Chief of Pulmonary and Critical Care Section and co-director of the UCI-VALB Pulmonary and Critical Care fellowship program. He has trained nearly 100 Pulmonary and Critical Care fellows over the course of his career. Teaching was his passion. He enjoyed teaching medical students, residents and fellows and had received several teaching awards.
Over the years, Kees served as chair of many departmental committees among others, Institutional Review Board, Research and Developmental Committee, and CPR committee. He was a member of the VA National Committee for writing the VA Guideline for the treatment of COPD.
Kees was a productive researcher; he authored and co-authored over 150 book-chapters, journal articles and abstracts. He had published original innovative work in control of ventilation and intravascular blood gas monitoring. He served as a reviewer for eminent scientific journals in respiratory and critical care, and a member of the editorial board for Intensive Care Medicine, a journal of the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine.
Kees is survived by his wife of 40 years, Gabi, his son, Neal, and daughter-in-law, Sophia, both of whom are obstetrician and gynecologists, as well as 4 grandchildren.
Catherine Sassoon
Professor of Medicine