The Punahou School community and other friends and family gathered Saturday to remember 24-year-old Hiram deFries-Saronitman as a kind, selfless soul with an unforgettable smile who was the “good kine kolohe.”
He was one of two young pilots killed Dec. 17 after the single-engine Cessna 208 they were flying crashed into a vacant building near the Daniel K. Inouye International Airport.
DeFries-Saronitman and Preston Kaluhiwa, 26, a Kamehameha schools graduate from Kaneohe, both worked for Kamaka Air as pilots and had their lives cut short when they lost control of air cargo carrier’s Flight 689 shortly after takeoff on an instructional flight to Lanai.
Kaluhiwa had a commercial pilot certificate and was a certified flight instructor for single-engine planes. DeFries-Saronitman had a commercial pilot certificate and 430 total hours of civilian flight experience.
The National Transportation Safety Board’s preliminary report on the crash did not give a cause and an investigation by the NTSB and the Federal Aviation Administration is ongoing.
One of deFries-Saronitman’s teachers remembered the 2020 Punahou graduate Saturday as a child of the state’s Hawaiian language immersion programs. He started learning at Kawaiahao Preschool, continued through Ke Kula Kaiapuni o Anuenue, and transitioned to Mid-Pacific Institute before enrolling at Punahou School in the ninth grade.
“His Hawaiian language was great. He and I got off on a really good foot because I would push him, I would push his knowledge and he would push right back,” said kumu Kealohi Reppun, speaking outside Thurston Memorial Chapel on the Punahou campus before Saturday’s service.
Behind Reppun, people streamed into Dole Cafeteria to view a memorial for deFries-Saronitman that included his white fishing boat, parked outside the cafeteria and adorned with bushels of ti leaves.
DeFries-Saronitman fished often and filled the refrigerators and freezers of family, friends and his Papakolea community. His grandfather, whom he was named after, started a program to help kids at Punahou dealing with food insecurity.
DeFries-Saronitman lettered in football and baseball in high school and went on to play football at Saddleback College in Mission Viejo, Calif., where he earned a spot on the Academic All-State Football Team and was named the college’s Bobcat of the Year.
He played linebacker for Saddleback in both 2021 and 2022 and was an All-National Division Southern League second-team selection following his sophomore season.
He received an associate of arts degree from the college and in 2023 obtained his commercial pilot license in Little Falls, Minn., before returning to Hawaii to work for Kamaka Air.
Reppun, a fellow Punahou alum who taught deFries-Saronitman during his last two years there, described him as “a kolohe kind of kid but not bad kolohe. The good kine kolohe.”
She recalled developing a relationship with him “really quickly because we have the immersion context in common. But also, (Hiram) was a very witty kid, quick, just a joy to teach and to have in the classroom,” Reppun said.
“He had a beautiful smile — the kind of smile that when he looked at you or he was in a room, or he had a funny thought, it was contagious. For me … that’s the thing I keep seeing. And the thing I remember most about being in class with him and his classmates (was) having good fun and smiling together and always being there for each other,” she said, speaking through tears, her voice shaking.
“A lot of people will never get to know him … . That’s what … I will miss the most and what I think I am grieving. The potential of his effect and his influence in the world. That’s really the thing I am grieving … and I know many others are as well.”
DeFries-Saronitman is survived by his parents, Jed and Tamar; his sisters, Jemme and Alexis; his grandparents, Hiram and Trudi; and his fiance, Naleo Olokahi Faurot deFries-Saronitman.
