Hawaii lost another decorated war hero and Hawaii golf lost one of its most passionate backers when Mike Iyoki died Jan. 21 at age 65. Iyoki had been suffering from cancer the past several years.

He refused to let it keep him from what mattered most in his life — his family, friends and golf. After his retirement party two years ago, his thank you note ended with this heartfelt sentiment:

"No one knows what the near future holds for anyone, let alone one with health issues," Iyoki wrote his friends. "But I consider every day and any day that I can spend with any of you a blessing so let’s make sure we spend more time on the course and less behind those desks!"

Iyoki battled through multiple surgeries and relentless regimens of chemotherapy, mostly suffering in silence.

"His passion and love for golf is unmatched," Oahu Country Club head pro Andrew Feldmann said after Iyoki’s retirement. "The days after chemo you can tell he is just barely making it around 18 holes, but he grits it out."

Iyoki played high school golf at Saint Louis. Feldmann loves to tell people his friend’s handicap was (minus) seven or eight when he enlisted in the Air Force and improved to plus numbers by the time he got out.

But Iyoki did much more than golf. After a 20-year military career that included serving as a para-rescue specialist in Vietnam, he was awarded the bronze star, the military’s fourth-highest award for bravery.

He worked at Fort Shafter’s Nagorski Course when he came home in 1997, well aware of how much golf helped the military to escape. Three years later, Iyoki would be the Aloha Section PGA’s Pro of the Year and U.S. Army Pacific Multi-Facility Manager of the Year. He also earned the ASPGA 2002 Merchandiser of the Year honor and was its Senior Player of the Year in 2005.

Iyoki retired at the end of 2012 as U.S. Army Hawaii Director of Golf, and told his friends he was "trying to make memories."

"My first 35 years there are not many," Iyoki said then. "The last 28 years have been all good memories and that was the time I spent in golf. Many of these memories keep me going … this is what I cherish most."

Iyoki is survived by wife, Wendy, children Christopher and Luana (Groom), mother Yachiyo Iyoki, sister Louise Matsumoto, and five grandchildren and two great grandchildren.

His Celebration of Life will be Friday at 5 p.m. at Leilehua, a place he helped become one of the Army’s top-grossing golf courses.

"Mike loved being a golf professional and had a tremendous amount of passion for the game," Feldmann says. "That passion made things a lot of fun for all of us (professionals) who played on Sundays and Mondays."