On June 7, 2026, the San Joaquin Medical Society gathered at the Stockton Golf and Country Club’s Delta Ballroom for its Annual Membership Dinner—and one of the evening’s two biggest honors went to someone very close to our hearts.
Dr. Henry Y.T. Wong, co-founder of the Dr. Henry & Sylvia Wong Foundation, was named the Society’s 2026 Lifetime Achievement Award recipient, recognizing nearly four decades of service as a radiation oncologist at St. Joseph’s Medical Center and a lifetime spent, as Henry puts it, “giving it all away to repay society for what they’ve given us.”
Dr. Ajithkumar “AJ” Puthillath, who worked alongside Henry for nearly a decade, had the honor of introducing him. AJ traced Henry’s remarkable path—from a 13-year-old who arrived in North America with nothing, to an aerospace engineering student at the University of Toronto and Princeton, to a radiation oncologist who helped build a cancer center in Stockton—and credited Henry’s late wife Sylvia as the spark that redirected him toward medicine.
“Dr. Wong, your lifetime achievement is not just the patients you treated, the programs you built, or the buildings that have your name,” AJ said. “I believe it’s the countless people who were able to dream bigger because you opened the door for them.”
Dr. Aminder Mehdi, who began practicing oncology in Stockton a decade after Henry, shared his own remembrances—Henry’s honesty, his generosity, and a smile he wore at all times. “If there are young physicians who want to have a model to aspire to,” Aminder said, “then that model should be somebody like Dr. Henry Wong.”
True to form, Henry’s acceptance speech was warm, funny, and humble. He recalled the job interview decades earlier when he told a hospital administrator his three best qualities were sleeping well, having a good appetite, and being lucky—and got the job. He thanked Sylvia, his sons, daughters-in-law, and grandsons as “my foundation, my purpose, and my joy,” welcomed his niece Kalina who flew in from Hong Kong, and even shared a patient’s well-timed joke about a “second opinion.”
He closed with words from Sir William Osler: that medicine is “an art, not a trade; a calling, not a business”—a fitting reflection from a man who has spent his retirement proving exactly that.
It was a true family affair. Henry’s three sons, along with their partners and his four grandsons, were all in attendance. A niece even made the trip all the way from Hong Kong to celebrate with him. Of course, Sylvia—who passed away in November 2024—was sorely missed, with Dr. Puthillath noting how she “became a very successful realtor and went on to subsidize Dr. Henry Wong’s passion to work as a radiation oncologist.”
The evening also celebrated Dr. Anureet Gill, recipient of the Society’s 2026 Young Physician Award. A dedicated family physician and medical director at Dignity Health, Dr. Gill was recognized for her tireless work recruiting top physicians to the region, her full-time commitment to her patients, and her belief in preventative care—all while raising two children and staying connected to her Indian heritage by teaching Bhangra dance to local youth. Congratulations to Dr. Gill on this well-earned honor.
Read more about the evening, including Dr. Wong’s full story, in the San Joaquin Physician, Summer 2026 issue.
