Paul Kiyoshi Kitagaki

Paul Kiyoshi Kitagaki, San Francisco Bay Area native, was born Mar. 9, 1927 in Oakland, CA to Suyematsu and Juki Kitagaki of Kumamoto-ken, Japan. He passed away Oct. 11, 2021 at 94.

Mr. Kitagaki and his family were among those locked in incarceration camps behind barbed wire by President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Order 9066, which removed 110,000 Japanese, twothirds native-born Americans, from the West Coast. Tanforan Assembly Center held them in 1942. Then they were imprisoned with 8,000 other incarcerates at Topaz Relocation Center, Utah.

After WWII he served the Army Air Force in New Mexico, learning radar and electronics. There he met Agnes Eiko Takahashi. They married on July 20, 1949, a union lasting 57 years. Agnes died in 2007, age 84.

Paul followed his older brother Mario to San Francisco State College. Both became teachers. He was revered at Lux Lab for gifted students at Polytechnic High School in San Francisco and influenced many engineers who had successful careers in tech, one of whom recalled him as “unquestionably the most influential teacher I ever had. Paul brought in the first microprocessor, still on a wafer, that I’d ever seen.” Following Polytechnic!s closure, he taught at Woodrow Wilson and McAteer High schools and at Everret and Visitation Middle schools.

Fascinated with technology throughout life, he accumulated more than 40 computers, from hand-held calculators to the newest Apple. Avid ham radio operator, he was a proud Navy Affiliate Military Radio System member, supporting state, federal and international agencies in emergencies. His back yard was filled with radio antennas. He loved to share iPhone videos at his assisted living home in Carmichael, California.

Mr. Kitagaki’s family appreciated his ice cream appetite; a restaurant dinner always included a visit to Swenson’s on Hyde Street when he lived in the Bay Area.

He was preceded in death by siblings Hisayo Koga, Mario Kitagaki, Nobuo Kitagaki and Kimiko Wong.

Survivors include son Paul Kitagaki Jr. and wife Renée C. Byer; Paul’s children Chris and Jessica Kitagaki Herrick, Naomi Kitagaki and Bryce and Monica Kitagaki Palmer; daughter Susan Sy and husband Gilbert Sy, children Brian and Elissa Sy; James and Emily Sy Pena; great-grandchildren Aden and Avalyn Herrick, Riley Sanders, Brayden and Quinn Palmer and Thomas Sy.

He will be interred with Agnes at the Golden Gate National Cemetery in San Bruno, CA.