Dr. Wolfgang Pfaeltzer delivered nearly a generation of Maui babies and took care of Maui women during a time when there were few specialists on the island. He was known for his booming German accent, his boundless love of adventure and his deep compassion for his patients that sometimes was disguised by his Indiana Jones persona.

Pfaeltzer died last Friday at Maui Memorial Medical Center, where he had previously served as chief of staff and chief of obstetrics and gynecology. He was 82.

He packed a lot of living into 82 years, even owning a large horse ranch on Maui and, later, retiring to his own private island in Fiji.

Still, his family says, he is gone too soon.

Wolfgang Georg Karl Pfaeltzer was born in Hanau, Germany, on Jan. 11, 1923.

His self-written vita lists milestones in his life like notations on a medical chart:

1941: 1st semester University of Frankfurt Medical School.

1941: Drafted into German Army, served in occupied France and Italy.

July 1944: Wounded in Lithuania, afterward served in Army Hospital.

April 1945-Dec 1945: POW, U.S. Army.

Feb 1946: Returned to Medical School in Frankfurt.

In the early 1950s, Pfaeltzer did his residency at several American hospitals, including St. Joseph Hospitals in Chicago and in Lexington, Ky.

In 1956, he came to Honolulu and was Chief Resident at St. Francis Hospital and Kapi'olani Hospital in Maternity and Obstetrics/Gynecology.

He met his wife, Maui girl Doreen Iriguchi, who was a registered nurse at Kapi'olani Hospital. They married in 1959, the same year he opened his practice on Maui. They had four children: Patricia, born in 1961; Naomi, born in 1964; Karin, born in 1965; and Keoki, born in 1969.

On an island accustomed to old-time plantation general practitioners, Dr. Pfaeltzer was different, to say the least. There was nothing hesitant or halfway about him. If he was your doctor, he was your hero.

"Dad always answered every call to the house, and answered any questions no matter what time of day, that his patients had," daughter Patricia remembers. "He answered them without being condescending, no matter how trivial the question seemed. He knew every single patient's name and practically their life history. He was genuinely interested in their lives."

That meant that if his patients couldn't pay their bills, he'd accept whatever they could afford, even taking home produce as trade for services.

"We loved when he came home with bags of veggies and fruits and our favorite were the bags of artichokes from a farmer patient in Kula," Patricia said. "The name of the farmer escapes me now, but I'll bet if I could ask my dad now, he would know."

The question "What kind of insurance do you have?" was never asked in Dr. Pfaeltzer's office, Patricia remembers.

"You WOULD hear him ask, 'How did you cook those long beans? My family loved it! Can I get the recipe?' or 'Did your horse foal yet?' Sometimes his nurse, Molly, would go nuts because he took so long with the patient after the exam, chatting about thissa and thatta, while the waiting room was full!"

He made house calls, sometimes taking his oldest daughter with him to visit with the families.

He built a robust life on Maui, becoming a trusted practitioner in a community sometimes wary of anybody different or bold.

He raised horses, including Appaloosas, on land in Pe'ahi and worked and rode alongside some of Maui's roughneck cowboys.

He built a house along the water in Ma'alaea with a bedroom for each of his children and a large outdoor lanai for entertaining friends.

"He took me with him to Spreckelsville to collect stones for a wall he and Mom were building around the house, stone by stone, all by themselves, when they had free time," Patricia said.

Pfaeltzer retired from medicine in 1985, bought an island in Fiji and made his home there with his wife until June 2004.

"He and Mom so enjoyed their life in Fiji, for over two decades, growing fruit, copra and raising livestock. Dad LOVED critters and farming and really getting dirty and stinky. He just loved LIFE."

He loved his own big life, his family's, and the lives of countless mothers and babies he helped.

Services will be held tomorrow at Ballard Family Mortuary in Kahului starting at 10 a.m. Donations may be made in his memory to the Maui Humane Society, PO Box 1047, Puunene, HI 96784, or the Public Broadcasting System Foundation, 1320 Braddock Place, Alexandria, VA 22314.

Lee Cataluna's column runs Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Reach her at 535-8172 or lcataluna@honoluluadvertiser.com.