Stein E. Rafto AB '78 MD

2022 Candidate for HAA Director: Stein Rafto

I grew up in a small rural, racially diverse and economically disadvantaged community of Makaha/Waianae on the leeward coast of Oahu, Hawaii. I came to Harvard sight unseen. I was athletically unrecruited, but earned varsity letters in several sports all 4 years. I was not offered any financial aid and my immigrant father refused to take loan offers, so I worked in the HBS dining hall serving breakfast my freshman year, and as Mather House assistant librarian for 2.5 years to help pay for my education. In 4 years, I never ate in Harvard Square restaurants; spending Christmas in my freshman dorm was pretty depressing; my 3rd trip home to Hawaii was after graduation. But I loved the intellectual challenges and diversity that Harvard offered, and only missed Harvard hockey games if I was travelling to away meets at other Ivy schools. I visited my freshman biochemistry professor on every return visit to Cambridge until he finally retired, and mourned the passing of Reverend Gomes a few years ago.

Stein has been very active with HR'78 reunion activities, serving on multiple committees. He has helped raise scholarship funds, reached out to reconnect with "missing" classmates to increase participation in reunion addendance, fundraised to cover Redbook costs and support economically challanged classmates to be able to attend reunion events, participated in memorial services for deceased classmates, and convinced the class committee to include health guidance sessions, for which he recruited speakers and moderated panel discussions.

This latter activity directly led to the HACH/HR COVID-19 Initiative in early 2020 as the WHO declared a new worldwide pandemic. As lead physician, Stein and his 2 other co-founders quickly grew this grassroots initiative from advising friends in a few classes, to recruiting >150 health professional alumni to provide help to 2/3rd of all Harvard College alumni classes and many of the University graduate schools that do not have medical curricula.

As the 3rd year of the pandemic evolves into what we hope will be a more manageable endemic phase, Stein has co-founded and serves as an officer of the new HAA Disaster Preparedness and Response SIG. A working framework is almost complete, and the SIG has hosted several excellent Zoom presentations by experts in various topics (please go to dprt.ning.com to see more information, review those talks, and consider joining this group).

Stein attended medical school at the U. of Hawaii, did residency, fellowship, and research programs at the Hospital of the U. of Pennsylvania and the National Institutes of Health, prior to returning home to Hawaii to serve his community for almost 30 years until his retirement. He authored several book chapters and scientific papers, and served on numerous county, state and national medical society boards and commissions during his career. A believer in the power of educational opportunities to open doors, his yearly visits to early elementary school classes, coaching varsity high school athletes, and mentoring numerous medical students and residents were constant activities throughout his career.

Stein Rafto AB ‘78 MD

A.B. ’78 cum laude
M.D. ’83, University of Hawaii
Honolulu, HI