This week and next, I’m presenting my annual Rearview Mirror Awards for those who made, preserved or shared Hawaii’s history:
Terrance Tom
Pioneering Spirit Award
In November, I interviewed Terrance Tom, who played piano at several Hawaii lounges. He was a state legislator and is still a lawyer, which is not easy for a blind person to do.
Tom was told that he was the first person in the U.S. to take and pass the bar exam in Braille in 1973. I asked him to explain it to me.
“It is my understanding that prior to that, blind persons took the bar exam orally and not in Braille,” Tom said. “No one has ever disputed that I was the first to take it in Braille.
“Each part of the exam was released on the day it took place. Mrs. Helen Nawaa, who was also blind and employed at the Library for the Blind, was seated in a room next to mine. A sighted person would read the printed materials aloud to her, and she would Braille (that’s a verb) the questions for me.
“All of this was done on each day of the exam so I would have the exam questions in Braille at the same time my sighted counterparts received the questions. I did not have any additional time to take the exam as the sighted students.
“When I completed each day of the exam, a stenographer would come into my exam room, and I would read my answers for her to take down. Fortunately, I passed the exam on my first try.”
Nawaa was part of a team that helped translate Tom’s college textbooks into Braille. For that, I give Tom and Nawaa the 2024 Pioneering Spirit Award.
Margaret Hamada
Outstanding Educator Award
In March, I wrote about former Gov. George Ariyoshi and the teacher at Central Intermediate School, Margaret Hamada, who helped him overcome a speech impediment.
Ariyoshi wanted to become a lawyer. But he had difficulty producing certain sounds, especially th’s and s’s. “I started to stutter, and oftentimes I would forget what I wanted to say because I was so cognizant of saying it the right way,” he said.
He asked Hamada, “How can I become a lawyer if I can’t speak?
“She said, ‘Oh, let’s work on that.’ She had me come in on weekends to Central Intermediate School. She would make me read aloud, and I spent hours and hours doing that. Slowly I improved.
“She came to my inaugurations. When she died, I was asked to speak at her funeral.” Ariyoshi talked about how Hamada had said, “All the teacher wants is one person. And the person that I had was George Ariyoshi.”
How would Hawaii have been different without Hamada helping that one student, who went on to become our governor? For that, I bestow Hamada with the 2024 Outstanding Educator Award.
Don Chapman
Excellence in Journalism Award
Don Chapman was a journalist for over 25 years in Hawaii. His first column was in October 1979, and KSSK disc jockey Hal “Aku” Lewis took to the air to tell his radio listeners that it was awful and that Chapman would never make it in this town.
It was the best advertising he could get, Chapman told me. No one had heard about him before that, but all of a sudden, he was the talk of the town.
Chapman created a Pidgin English Hall of Fame in the 1980s. It acknowledged those who were excellent at talking li’dat (such as Jim Leahey, Larry Price and Andy Bumatai) as well as some funny terminology, like what do you call a haole guy trying to learn pidgin? (“A training brah”). Or an office hole punch could be called a “puka meka.”
From 2001 to 2005 he wrote the daily fictional serial “My Kind of Town” in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, with such characters as Johnny B. Goo, Sherlock Gomes and Salvatore Innuendo. Two of the six stories were edited into books and are available on Amazon.
In his book “The Goodfather, the Life of Larry Mehau,” Chapman said Mehau was mislabeled the “godfather” of organized crime in Hawaii by then-Honolulu Prosecutor Rick Reed.
Chapman wrote another book about Alexander Joy Cartwright, the father of baseball, in “The Ball That Changed the World.”
I met him while he was the editor of MidWeek, and he was supportive of my writing. He retired in 2016. For all his writing endeavors, I honor him with the 2024 Excellence in Journalism Award.
Shizumi Kunioka
Culinary Excellence Award
“Everyone’s all-time favorite cafeteria manager was Shizumi Kunioka at University High Lab School.” John Chong said. She worked there from 1944 to 1982.
One student said, “The one thing I miss from school lunch is Miss Kunioka’s Ivory Jell-O with chocolate gravy (sauce) over the top. Soooo good. I’ve never had it since or even seen it anywhere.”
Other student favorites included hamburger pizza, Spanish rice, chili con carne, baked spaghetti, almond cookies, corn chowder and tuna macaroni. At her 1982 retirement party, she arrived in a Rolls-Royce limousine. She was presented with a plaque that said:
“Rarely does one person touch the lives of so many during their careers. You not only nurtured us by serving over 3,000,000 lunches, but you have also taught us the values of hard work, being responsible, and having concern for others, which have helped us throughout our lives.”
There was a reception line, and as the former students passed through, Kunioka could identify everyone, even though she may not have seen them for 20 years or more. She knew everyone’s names and even the names of any siblings that attended University High School.
John Quong
Restaurateur of the Year Award
Fourteen-year-old John Quong came to the U.S. from China at the start of World War II. He had no money and spoke no English. After high school in Wisconsin, he served on Guam with the U.S. Army Air Corps.
“There, he learned how to manage the mess operations, which eventually drove his passion to open his own restaurant,” said his son Ron Quong.
After the Army he moved to Honolulu and, with a few partners, bought his first restaurant, the Hofbrau in Waikiki. From there he opened the Green Turtle restaurant on Kapiolani Boulevard and Sandbox restaurant on Sand Island Access Road.
Then came the Cavalier in the Pan Am Building on Kapiolani Boulevard, the Eagle’s Nest lounge on the second floor and an employee cafeteria for building tenants called Boulevard House.
“Dad worked hard, seven days a week,” Quong said. “On weekends he would be in the office answering phones for weekend reservations. There was no voicemail or social media in the 1960s and ’70s.”
He built relationships with some of Hawaii’s best tour companies, which created dinner packages that filled the Cavalier every night.
“His friend Flora Chang, owner of the Inn of the Sixth Happiness restaurant in Kapalama, asked him to help manage the Pier 6 restaurant on the second floor of the Oceania Floating Restaurant in Honolulu Harbor,” Quong said.
Running so many memorable restaurants earned John Quong the 2024 Restaurateur of the Year Award.
Next week I’ll reveal the other 2024 awardees.
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Bob Sigall is the author of the five “The Companies We Keep” books. Contact him at Sigall@Yahoo.com or sign up for his free email newsletter at RearviewMirrorInsider.com.
Bob Sigall is the author of the five “The Companies We Keep” books. Contact him at Sigall@Yahoo.com or sign up for his free email newsletter at RearviewMirrorInsider.com.
