MARIE KEIM FAUS

In 1948 she recalled the effort by some of her medical school instructors to find a loophole for failing her. One instructor informed her he was going to flunk her, but neglected to inform his assistant who gave her a grade of 95 on her bacteriological slides and notebook. When apprised of the situation the assistant asked how he could fail the student with the best work. Her teachers felt that there should not be any mediocre women doctors and that a woman medical student must do 10 percent better work than her male colleagues. Surmounting all her difficulties, she received her M.D. in 1921.

She was interning at St. Anthony's Hospital in Denver when she received a telegram from Dr. Robert Faus, a former fellow student at Colorado Medical School and a psychiatric intern at Cook County Hospital, Chicago, saying, "Will you marry me and go to Honolulu?" They were married in Evergreen, Colorado, in 1921 and arrived in Honolulu in July. "Dr. Marie", as she was known, became the first female intern at the Queen's Hospital, and Dr. "Bob" joined the house staff. The Doctors Faus had three children: Katherine (Mrs. Burton Andrus), Robert B., Jr., and an adopted daughter, Lady Marie (Mrs. William Sode).

"Being an intern at Queen's posed no problems for me. I was used to working with men before I came here, and the interns at Queen's were very nice to me", said Dr. Marie in an interview in 1973. Her reminiscences of the early days at Queen's include descriptions of the maternity section on the second floor where she delivered many babies; the problem of keeping families out of the nursery; and how the night nurse took care of both typhoid cases and newborn babies until Dr. Marie in desperation finally persuaded Dr. Clifford Wood to arrange for an isolation ward. She remembered the mosquito nettings on all the hospital beds, and how patients were wheeled directly from surgery to beds on open lanais (the recovery room came much later) but somehow recovered.

In addition to her work at Queen's, Dr. Marie was appointed the first intern at Kapiolani Maternity Hospital. Having no car, she would take the street car from Queen's to the old hospital on Beretania and Kalakaua. In those days most babies were delivered by midwives, who deeply resented having a young girl come in to tell them what to do, until Dr. Guy Milnor smoothed things over. Dr. Marie was also on the staff of St. Francis and Leeward Oahu hospitals.

After completing her internship at Queen's in 1922, Dr. Marie went into private practice with Dr. Paul Withington, who had an office on Alakea Street and handled mostly industrial cases. She was one of the organizers of the voluntary physician free child health clinics at Palama Settlement in 1922 and continued with this work until 1957. Later she handled health examination programs at Punahou School, the University of Hawaii, and the Territorial State Normal School.

Early in the 1920s Governor Farrington asked Drs. Marie and Bob Faus to conduct a survey of the old State Insane Asylum on School Street. Horrified at the conditions they found, the Fauses were instrumental in getting the Legislature in 1925 to appropriate $75,000 for the purchase of land in Kaneohe for a new mental hospital. Dr. Marie was personally responsible for founding the Bureau of Maternal and Child Health, now a branch of the State Health Department. From 1958-1960 she was resident physician at Hawaii State Hospital, and continued to do volunteer work there after her retirement. In 1963 she spent a month at Kalaupapa, Molokai, caring for leprous patients.

Two important honors were given Dr. Marie in 1965 when she was recognized for her many community contributions. Named Woman of the Year by Panhellenic of Hawaii, she was also given the Distinction in Medicine Award from Colorado Women's College.

Dr. Marie was a charter member of the Academy of General Practice (now the Academy of Family Physicians), a life member of the American Medical Association, Hawaii Medical Association, and the Honolulu County Medical Society. She was a founder of the Portlock Community Association, a charter member of Zonta Club of Honolulu, a member of the Women's Committee of the Honolulu Symphony, Morning Music Club, Delta Delta Delta Sorority, American Association of University Women, the Outrigger Canoe Club, and Central Union Church.

Dr. Marie retired in 1966 from private practice, and died on September 16, 1975, at the age of 79.

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