Yoshio Kondo was a biologist and malacologist. He spent virtually his entire life in Hawaii, with the exception of a number of collecting expeditions, primarily to islands in the Pacific Ocean (including the Mangarevan Expedition

Mangarevan Expedition

The Mangarevan Expedition of 1934 was a scientific expedition to investigate the natural history of the farthest southeastern islands of Polynesia, including Mangareva. It was a comprehensive natural history expedition of a kind more common during the previous century. Sponsored by the Bernice P...

 in 1934), and his time spent at Harvard University, where he received a Ph.D. under the direction of William J. Clench

William J. Clench

William James Clench was an American malacologist, professor at Harvard University and curator of the mollusk collection in the malacology department of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard.Clench was born in Brooklyn, but was largely raised in Massachusetts. In 1913 he entered the...

 in 1955. He was known to most people as "Yoshi".

Kondo spent his entire professional career, over 40 years, at the Bernice P. Bishop Museum in Honolulu. During most of that period, his official position was "Curator of Mollusks". His main research interests involved land snails in the families Achatinellidae

Achatinellidae

Achatinellidae is a family of tropical air-breathing land snails, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusks in the superfamily Achatinelloidea.- Taxonomy :...

 and Partulidae

Partulidae

Partulidae is a family of air-breathing land snails, terrestrial gastropod mollusks in the infraorder Stylommatophora, endemic to Pacific islands.- Genera :Partulidae is divided into three genera:* Eua has four species, confined to Tonga and Samoa....

, groups for which he was a major authority, although he did work with other mollusks as well.

He was succeeded by his son, Charles Kondo, PHD., and grandchildren: Douglas Kondo, Erica Kondo, and Nick Kondo.