PORTLAND — Tsukasa Horie, M.D., passed away Sunday, April 15, with his family at his side. He was born in Niihama, Ehime-ken, Japan, in 1926, son of Isamu and Mineko Horie. After an early education in Niihama, Saijo and Matsuyama, he entered Tokyo Medical and Dental University, graduating with a medical degree in 1956.

He was fortunate enough to join his sister, Utako, also a physician, in the United States for a fellowship with Dr. Katharine Boucot in Philadelphia. He completed further medical training in Detroit. In 1962, he married Nancy Seward, who was also taking residency training in Detroit as an anesthesiologist. After Nancy completed her residency, the couple returned to Japan where they worked at St. Luke’s Hospital in Tokyo.

In 1966, the Hories moved to Maine, where Tsukasa took a further residency year in internal medicine at the Maine Medical Center and then joined the emergency department at St. Mary’s Hospital in Lewiston.

In 1970, Tsukasa, Nancy and their baby daughter, Ayumi, returned to Tokyo, where his brother completed a course as a lab technician. The family returned to Lewiston in 1972, where Dr. Horie began practice in internal medicine at St. Mary’s and Central Maine General hospitals. He retired from active practice in 1999, though he retained an active interest in medicine.

When he retired, he received a letter from one of his Japanese classmates, who suggested that taking pictures of birds, as the classmate was doing, might be an enjoyable way to utilize his interest in photography. From this suggestion came a decade and a half of traveling the world to myriad spots for bird watching and photography. Tsukasa and Nancy traveled to Australia, Africa, Central and South America, the Arctic, South Georgia and the Falklands, extensively over Canada and the United States, Japan, Borneo and Papua New Guinea, finding amazing birds and other wildlife.

The diversity and wonder of the world were a true joy for Dr. Horie. He loved seeing the birds in place, so to speak, and being able to recreate the experience through pictures. He remained friends with classmates, some reaching back to primary school, and maintained a wide correspondence with friends and family, who were frequent recipients of a wide range of pictures.

Dr. Horie is survived by his wife; his daughter, Ayumi, and her spouse, Chloe; three sisters in Japan, Sumiko, Kimiko and Michiko; a niece and nephew in the United States, Ryuko Doscher and Takeyoshi Horie; and several nieces and nephews in Japan.

Memories and thoughts may be shared at www.thefortingroupauburn.com.

Tsukasa Horie

Tsukasa Horie