William T. Shanks

August 1, 1952 - October 1, 2014

William (Bill) Thompson Shanks (8/1/52 – 10/1/14) survived by: Wife- Virna Sin Kwan Cheung Children: Paul Ryland Shanks Malia Ann Acosta, husband Deke Acosta Ian Eliot Shanks Granddaughter: Aubrey Cher Acosta Cousin: John Ryland Mickowski Bill was born in Carlsbad, New Mexico on August 1, 1952 and passed away at home on October 1, 2014 in Waikele, Hawaii at the age of 62. He was the only child of father John Welton Shanks and mother Eileen Ruth Ryland, who were married just a few days after they met in 1944 when John stationed in Liverpool, England. Bill graduated with Bachelor of Science at Arizona State University, and later received his Master of Arts in psychology from University of Northern Colorado and Master of Business Administration from Chaminade University of Honolulu. Bill met and married his first wife, Patricia Sharp at ASU. Due to his ROTC scholarship, Bill joined the military service after graduation. The military brought him to Hawaii where he served as postal officer at Schofield Barracks and Fort Shafter. Their children, Paul and Malia, were born at Tripler Army Medical Center. Bill and Pat divorced in 1982. After Bill finished his degree in Northern Colorado, he decided to return to Hawaii with less than a hundred dollars in his pocket. With that decision, he later met his second wife Virna, remarried in 1986, and had called Hawaii home ever since. Bill was a man of determination. He did not bow facing obstacles. He was told that he was too chubby by his senior army officer. He took up long distance running, and ran numerous 10K races and marathons. His best marathon time was just a few minutes over 3 hours. He completed the “Run to the Sun,” a 36- mile race also known as "Hawaii's Stairway to Heaven" in 1984. Sadly, that race was the last in his racing career. Shortly after his return to Hawaii, Bill was hired as a computer programmer by Honolulu Medical Group (HMG) and assisted his boss, Bill Liggitt, in writing the billing program for HMG. Liggitt passed away suddenly in 1983. Bill took on the challenge, became the manager, and continued with the billing software. In 1984, he hired his first programmer, a new MIS graduate, Virna. While at HMG, Bill started his long affiliation with Waianae Coast Comprehensive Health Center (WCCHC) and Maui Medical Group (MMG) as they contracted with HMG to help them with their billing need. In 1987, Mike Tweedell, then administrator of WCCHC, invited Bill to join WCCHC to write their own billing software as WCCHC had very special billing needs as a Federally Qualified Health Center with a 24- hour emergency room. Bill vividly remembered being told by a local vendor named Ruby that he would fail writing his own software. Bill proved her wrong. Bill and Virna converted their one bedroom apartment in Piikoi Street to a studio with a computer room and spent countless hours writing the software in COBOL language. In 1992, Virna also joined the WCCHC team full time. In 1993, PAMM was born and WCCHC had been using it for medical billing for 20 years until 2013 as Bill retired in 2012. During that time, WCCHC created a subsidiary, HPAS, headed by Bill, to provide medical billing software or services for other clients, such as MMG, State Ambulance Service, Pali Momi Emergency Providers, and Hawaii Anesthesia Group. Many WCCHC staff would tell you that the home grown software Bill wrote was better than its replacement, the very expensive nationally marketed practice management system. Starting with a bad flight to Palau with Virna in 1988, Bill developed a phobia for flying. To conquer that fear, he took up flying in 2000, and got his private pilot license in 2002 after some very tough times. After that, he began to have confidence on pilots and could sleep on the plane again. In 2006, after extreme fatigue, Bill was finally diagnosed with AA, not Alcoholic Anonymous, but Aplastic Anemia, a rare form of auto immune system disease where the bone marrow is not producing enough new blood cells. He spent 26 days that December at Queen’s Medical Center to go through an ATG treatment, basically a reset of his immune system. At that time, the life expectancy of AA patients was 5 years. A few months after the ATG treatments, his condition deteriorated and became transfusion dependent again. To give himself the best chance, he visited the national leading experts of AA, Dr. Ronald Paquette at UCLA and Dr. Neil Young at National Institute of Health by himself for second opinions and he improved with their recommendation. Bill has been very grateful for all blood donors and became a patient spokesperson for Blood Bank of Hawaii in 2009. He trained himself and walked the 26-mile New York City Marathon in six hours in 2010. Bill loved billiards and bowling when he was at ASU. When Ian started bowling in high school, Bill’s love for bowling was ignited again. He loved his senior bowling league at Fort Shafter. He set a goal of joining the Professional Bowling Associations (PBA) and achieved that in 2011 by averaging over 200 after 36 games in his league. His best score was 298. He later went on a PBA tour game and competed with his long time idols, Walter Ray Williams Jr. and Tom Baker. Bill had one of the best days in his life on 11/2/2012 in Kauai when Ian got 2nd place in the High School Boys State Bowling Championship with a score of 1928 over 9 games. The winner was only 5 pins ahead. Bill was diagnosed with bladder cancer on his retirement day in 2012. It could have been caused by his smoking during his college years (a warning for anyone who still smokes) and/or a side effect of Cyclosporine, a drug that he had been taking for years to manage AA. He fought this disease valiantly. He had a radical cystectomy in May 2013, but tumor was detected in lymph node in November again and he also developed Myelodysplastic Syndrome, a different form of autoimmune system disease similar to AA, in early 2014. As the independent person he has always been, he would drive himself to chemotherapy and blood transfusion up until April 2014 when he needed Virna to take care of him. Bill’s biggest wish was to die at home and not to have to stay in hospital again. Thanks to Hospice Hawaii and WCCHC for allowing Virna to work from home, Bill was able to transition to a better place peacefully at home while Virna was holding his hands and sleeping next to him. Let’s celebrate the life and achievements of Bill and continue to go full steam forward in life as Bill had. Visitation: 9:00-10:00a.m., Monday (10/20) at Valley of The Temples Memorial Park-Chapel Service: 10:00a.m. Burial: 11:00 a.m. at Valley of The Temples Memorial Park Burial Location: Hana Zono 3, 112, D-3