‘Twigg’ held local journalism and the arts in high regard

Though a man of no small wealth or influence, Thurston Twigg-Smith is best remembered by friends and colleagues as a low-key leader whose respect for the practice of journalism and regard for the arts left an indelible imprint on his local community.

“He was never ‘Mr. Twigg-Smith,’” said former Honolulu Advertiser Editor Gerry Keir. “He was always ‘Twigg.’”

Palolo resident Jack Gillmar, a close friend, said Twigg-Smith represented the best of a bygone era in Honolulu.

“The reason that people loved Twigg was that he was just a warm, local guy,” Gillmar said. “He was of that generation of local haole elite that was very down-to-earth. When he was growing up, Honolulu was still a small town. Everybody knew everybody and nobody had to put on airs. That was him.”

Gillmar first got to know Twigg-Smith through the Pacific Club’s art committee.

“He was a staunch supporter of modern art and a patron of local modern artists,” Gillmar said. “There are a number of local artists who wouldn’t have had much of a start without him.”

Gillmar said Twigg-Smith’s tastes ran along eclectic lines.

“He had rather catholic tastes,” Gillmar said. “I think that applied to people as well. He was not a vanilla kind of person.”

Gillmar frequently drove Twigg-Smith to committee meetings, enjoying his elder passenger’s stories from the past, all told with raconteur flair.

He gave Twigg-Smith a ride to the club on the day the Advertiser merged with the Honolulu Star-Bulletin.

“I asked him how he felt,” Gillmar said. “And he said, ‘I’m glad it lasted this long.’”

Former Advertiser Managing Editor Mike Middlesworth remembered Twigg-Smith as “a fine guy, cheerful and friendly, rarely out of sorts.”

“He was even friendly to people who were opposed to him politically,” Middlesworth said.

Keir said he appreciated Twigg-Smith’s hands-off approach to newsroom affairs and the trust he invested in those who worked for him.

“You couldn’t ask for a better boss,” Keir said. “He provided the resources and got out of the way and let us work. He didn’t try to impose his thoughts and values on the newspaper product. It was in many ways the best example of a local, family-owned newspaper.”

Jerry Burris, a longtime Advertiser editor and editorial writer, recalled he once was preparing to write an editorial critical of a new building development that would have affected a historic Kona church. However, the project was backed by Twigg-Smith’s uncle and Burris was concerned that the editorial might not sit well with his boss.

“I checked with him and he told me, ‘Do whatever you want.’”

Twigg-Smith kept a similar respectful distance when the paper planned a special section to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the overthrow of the Hawaiian kingdom, an event in which Twigg-Smith’s ancestors were directly involved. Twigg-Smith’s only request was for reporters to refrain from using the term “illegal.”

Burris recalled an oft-repeated story of the evening Twigg-Smith spent negotiating the final details of the sale of the Advertiser to Gannett.

Twigg-Smith had traveled to the Gannett negotiator’s home in Los Angeles and two men spent a long night haggling over fine points and drinking cognac. At a certain point, the weary negotiator begged off to bed. He awoke the next morning, painfully hung over, to find Twigg-Smith doing pushups in the living room.

Throughout his career, Twigg-Smith devoted much of his wealth to philanthropy, founding the Contemporary Museum (now the Honolulu Museum of Art Spalding House) and supporting the Hawaii Theatre Center, the Historic Hawai‘i Foundation, the Lanaikea Foundation and other organizations. He also contributed generously to Punahou School and Yale University, his alma maters.

“He really believed in philanthropy,” Keir said. “Once he landed at the Advertiser, he set a standard for Hawaii corporations. It was his feeling that he had made money from the community and it was his obligation to give back.”