Shigeru Ochi

Shigeru “Shig” grew up in East Los Angeles during the Great Depression. He was a senior in high school when our country was drawn into World War II. He and his family were ordered by the federal government out of their home to Manzanar concentration camp; they were forced to abandon anything they could not carry.

Shig loved learning and recognized the immense power of education to transform lives; he was able to be released from Manzanar and attended Macalester College in St. Paul, Minn. When Shig was unable to afford the cost of student housing, he was allowed to sleep on a cot in the basement next to the coal furnace of Bigelow Hall dorm on the condition that he stoke the fire each morning at 5:00 a.m. 

After his freshman year, he was drafted into the Army; Shig bore no resentment from being unjustly incarcerated at Manzanar and instead was eager to demonstrate his love for America through military service.

He was sent to Japan with the American occupational forces after the atomic bombing. The Ochi family had been based in Hiroshima for centuries, and miraculously he was able to find and help relatives who had survived the blast but were coping with radiation sickness, wounds and malnutrition.

After his military service, he resumed his college education and graduated at the top of his class; this distinction along with a perfect score in math on the Graduate Record Exam enabled him to earn a scholarship to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for graduate school. There he obtained a master’s degree in applied mathematics. He subsequently earned a Ph.D. in biometry from the University of Minnesota. 

Shig met his future wife, Virginia Inouye of Stockton, while attending a young single adult group at Centenary United Methodist Church in Los Angeles. After getting married, Shig and Virginia raised four children — Jim, Wendy, Bob and Steve — in New Brighton, Minn. 

Shig worked as an engineer at UNIVAC, one of the first computer companies, until he and a few colleagues formed a new computer-communications startup called Comten. The new company was a success and went public in 1968 on the New York Stock Exchange. 

Shig loved his sons and daughter, and had high expectations for them. He and Virginia intentionally lived far below their means so that they could pay for all of the educational expenses of their children. All four graduated from college; one became a teacher, and three became medical doctors. Shig was extremely proud of the accomplishments of all of his children and grandchildren.

After Virginia passed, Shig found happiness when he met and married May Ajifu. They loved experiencing different cultures as they spent many years traveling the world together.

Throughout his life, Shig felt abundantly blessed by God for all of the opportunities given to him. He was a lifelong Christian and steadfast in his faith until he passed on July 21, 2026, at the age of 102 years in Granite Bay, Calif.

Shig’s memorial will be at St. Andrew’s By the Sea, 2001 Calle Frontera, San Clemente, CA 92673, Saturday, September 12, at 11:00 a.m.  

In lieu of flowers, please consider making a donation to the Salvation Army, an organization that Shig admired and respected throughout his life.

For more on his remarkable life, please go to shigochi.com.