Ex-journalist on mend after being hit by car

A former Honolulu Star-Bulletin columnist and veteran foreign correspondent remained in serious condition Thursday after an accident in which the 87-year-old was hit by a vehicle while crossing a street near Ala Moana Center.

Jim Becker was transferred to Kaiser Permanente Moanalua Medical Center on Thursday from the Queen’s Medical Center with a broken pelvis, arm and ribs, according to friends.

The accident occurred Monday at about 10:15 a.m. as Becker, who is legally blind and was using a cane, was walking home after a morning swim at Ala Moana Beach. The driver of a car apparently slammed on the brakes and tried to swerve around the pedestrian in the Ala Moana Boulevard crosswalk, but it was too late, said Christine Ho, a Becker assistant.

"He was bumped pretty bad," Ho said. "I’m in shock."

Another friend, Nancy Peacock, is optimistic that Becker will recover.

"He’s passed the worst of it now," she said. "He has a great spirit and is so optimistic about the future. He has a resilient mind that will help him recover."

Becker is the author of "Saints, Sinners & Shortstops," a memoir that chronicles his 60-year journalism career. He worked for the Associated Press in Moscow, Cairo, Beirut, Vietnam, Hong Kong and Hawaii, among other places, and he was one of two staffers in AP’s Hawaii bureau in the 1950s who covered the run-up to statehood.

He wrote a column for the Star-Bulletin in the 1960s, and is particularly known for a lengthy front-page column describing the emotions of the underdog Farrington High School football team before, during and after its championship victory over Kamehameha School in 1965.