Harrington to receive award for being exemplary ‘Pacific citizen’

The Pan Pacific Southeast Asia Women Association-Hawaii has selected Al Harrington as the first recipient of its Lifetime Achievement Award. The awards banquet will be held Dec. 30, 7 p.m., at the Pagoda Hotel.

Mary Tori Keegan, president of the organization’s Hawaii board, said Al was selected because his “contribution in sports, education, film, tourism, entertainment, indigenous issues and philanthropic work in the past 50 years was extraordinary. He was a marquee headliner in Waikiki, a member of the ‘Hawaii Five-0’ original cast and can be called the quintessential Pacific citizen.”

Notified of the award, Al said he was surprised and grateful for the honor. A star running back at Punahou (class of ’54) and at Stanford University (’58), he was drafted by the NFL’s Detroit Lions, but the good Mormon choose to go on a mission rather than play pro football.

The award ceremony will include a concert by Pacific entertainers to celebrate the association’s charitable work since 1928 in Hawaii, Samoa, Tonga, Southeast Asia and other nations in and around the Pacific. Al said his late mom was a member of the group. Lela Logotaeao Harrington died in January at the age of 101.

Tickets are $50 and $100 for VIP tables. Call Mary for more info at 294-5960 …

AS A three-year Army veteran, who as a 10-year-old kid was playing on Piikoi Street when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, I am happy and proud over the aloha and love that Hawaii has given the Pearl Harbor survivors who were here in remembrance of that deadly attack 75 years ago. I’m disappointed President Barack Obama, who was born in Hawaii and is a Punahou graduate, was not here for the ceremony.

I asked two of my fellow Roosevelt High 1949 graduates and teammates, 20-year Marine vet Ken Dias, who served in Korea and Vietnam during those wars, and four-year Coast Guard vet Frank Steinmiller, what they thought about Obama not being here. They said it would have been nice if the former islander had come.

Former Green Beret and ex-Punahou football and baseball star Bob Corboy, class of ’58, said Obama should have made a greater effort to be here. Punahou 1970 grad Wendy Maeda, who lives in my condo building with her mom, Jeanne, 91, worked as a Boston Globe photographer for 37 years. Her late dad, Katsumi Maeda, received a Bronze Star and Purple Heart for combat as a scout with the 100th Battalion in World War II. She said it would have been nice for Obama to be here.

All of those I asked, including Steinmiller’s wife, Virginia, a retired nurse, wanted Obama here, but most said there were probably good reasons he could not come …

AUTHOR and Campbell Estate trustee David Heenan’s 10th book, “Hidden Heroes: Finding Success,” is something new. It focuses on the people behind the scenes who have been instrumental in the success of their leaders…