Classmate's grandfather crafted palace's staircase

By Ben Wood

POSTED: 01:30 a.m. HST, May 18, 2012

~~JIMMY THOMAS, one of my Roosevelt class of '49 football teammates, sent me a letter after reading in my May 4 column that PBS Hawaii was to film a pledge program at ‘Iolani Palace. The program, featuring many of Hawaii's leading entertainers, will air on Kamehameha Day, June 11. The grand staircase was one of the areas where filming took place. Jimmy writes that his grandfather, Christian Augustus Gertz, his mother Helen's father, built the staircase in 1882. Helen was the last of Gertz's 11 children.
Jimmy lives in Volcano on the Big Isle with his wife, Carolyn. He was a Marine private in the Korean War and received a Purple Heart. He later became a Hawaii National Guard pilot. He gave some of his grandfather's tools to Kimo Thomas, his and Carolyn's third of four children, who is a carpenter. Jimmy and Carolyn marked their 50th wedding anniversary 10 years ago with a family reunion at the Old Archives Building on the palace grounds with 40 of their relatives. The pair celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary on Feb. 1. That's big! Congratulations. "We don't plan on having any more children," said Jimmy the comedian. Pretty Carolyn was a Roosevelt 1950 grad. She was a bigger deal than Jimmy in school because she was a song leader at RHS football games two years in a row …
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JIMMY THOMAS, one of my Roosevelt class of '49 football teammates, sent me a letter after reading in my May 4 column that PBS Hawaii was to film a pledge program at ‘Iolani Palace. The program, featuring many of Hawaii's leading entertainers, will air on Kamehameha Day, June 11. The grand staircase was one of the areas where filming took place. Jimmy writes that his grandfather, Christian Augustus Gertz, his mother Helen's father, built the staircase in 1882. Helen was the last of Gertz's 11 children.

Jimmy lives in Volcano on the Big Isle with his wife, Carolyn. He was a Marine private in the Korean War and received a Purple Heart. He later became a Hawaii National Guard pilot. He gave some of his grandfather's tools to Kimo Thomas, his and Carolyn's third of four children, who is a carpenter. Jimmy and Carolyn marked their 50th wedding anniversary 10 years ago with a family reunion at the Old Archives Building on the palace grounds with 40 of their relatives. The pair celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary on Feb. 1. That's big! Congratulations. "We don't plan on having any more children," said Jimmy the comedian. Pretty Carolyn was a Roosevelt 1950 grad. She was a bigger deal than Jimmy in school because she was a song leader at RHS football games two years in a row … Login for more...