Eugene Lewis Shay

DR. EUGENE SHAY MUSCATINE, Iowa - Dr. Eugene Lewis Shay, 89, of Muscatine, died on Friday, August 22, 2014, at Trinity Hospital - Muscatine. Graveside Memorial Service will be held at 10:00 a.m. on Wednesday, September 3, 2014, in Memorial Park Cemetery with Military Honors provided by the combined squads of the American Legion Post No. 27 and the V.F.W. No. 1565. Visitation will be from 4 until 7 p.m. on Tuesday, September 2, 2014, at the Ralph J. Wittich-Riley-Freers Funeral Home. Memorials may be made to Muscatine Community School Foundation. Dr. Shay was born on January 9, 1925, in Iowa City, the son of Francis Dennis and Lucille Marie Mathess Shay. He was educated at St. Patrick's School and went to St. Vincent's Home in Davenport for fifth through eighth grades. He then attended St. Ambrose Academy graduating 1942. He attended St. Ambrose College until March of 1943, when he entered the United States Marine Corps. After qualifying as a rifleman, he entered the Japanese Language School for Marines and became an interpreter-translator. Eugene had been a piano student since the first grade and later worked for Hal Weise, Jack Manthy, and several bands at the Planta...[more]

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n, Harmony Club, Fairview Inn, and the Hollywood Supper Club, among others in Illinois. He participated in the assault of Iwo Jima with the 1st Battalion, 27th Marines attached to the C Company and spent five weeks in combat. He entered the occupation of Japan and acted as interpreter and translator at Nagasaki to determine the results of the atomic bomb on the region and to remove military philosophy from the schools. He was then returned to the United States for honorable discharge. He married Ruth W. Reed in 1947, in Davenport, and they had three children. After 53 years of marriage she passed away in 2000. He later married Darlene A. Lange in 2003, and she still survives as of this date. After successful treatment by acupuncture for the flu in Isahara, he was influenced to attend Palmer College of Chiropractic to learn natural treatments for himself and family. He was also trained at the Chiropractic Mental Hospital in Davenport, now known as the Clearview Sanitarium. In 1953, in moved to Muscatine to establish a practice and has been active to this date. In 1971, he became very active in Chinese Medicine and Acupuncture. He became certified in these in 1973, and with the Chinese Medical Institute of Hong Kong in 1975. The intense examination was attended by 25 American doctors of which nine passed. He had continued his studies to the present with Asian instructors in advanced I Cheng, Dr. Tung and Balanced Method. He had the opportunity to study in China and Korea over the years. He is survived by two children; three great-grandchildren; and several great-grandchildren.