As word spread Friday of the death of Charles Maxwell, friends and family remembered the noted Hawaiian cultural expert and activist as a man whose unique combination of fiery moral conviction and disarming humor and charm left an indelible imprint on the Native Hawaiian community and the state as a whole.
Maxwell, of Pukalani, Maui, died Thursday at Maui Memorial Medical Center following a prolonged illness. He was 74.
Charles Maxwell:
He supported Hawaiian
sovereignty and opposed
military use of Kahoolawe
"Daddy was a fighter. He wasn’t afraid of speaking what he felt and saying what was right," said his daughter Sheri Maxwell.
Maxwell was a police officer for 15 years, working the beat on Maui and Molokai before retiring, and working as a Hawaiian cultural expert with his wife, Nina, to operate the Pukalani Hula Halau.
He was a leader of a group called Aboriginal Lands of Hawaiian Ancestry, a group in the early 1970s that supported sovereignty for Native Hawaiians.
He also was among Hawaiians who supported the Native Hawaiian occupation of Kahoolawe in the mid-1970s, claiming religious rights to visit the island and opposing the military bombing and maneuvers on the island.
The protest eventually led to the return and partial cleanup of Kahoolawe.
Maxwell is perhaps best remembered as a outspoken member of the Hawaii advisory group to the U.S. Civil Rights Commission. Maxwell criticized as a "desecration" the exhumation of Native Hawaiian burials at Honokahua to develop the Ritz-Carlton Kapalua.
About 900 skeletal remains were exhumed before the work stopped.
Eventually the resort agreed to stop the digging and relocated the hotel further mauka.
Dana Naone Hall, who served with Maxwell on the Maui/Lanai Islands Burial Council and other burial advisory boards, said Maxwell was always among the first to step forward when there was a stand to be made or a cause to be championed.
"Charlie was extremely opinionated and could be very brazen when he had something to say, but he was also extremely charming and people who knew him knew how funny he could be," Naone Hall said. "He stood out because of his personality, but whenever he did anything, it was always with other people and to help other people."
Naone recalled the many nighttime re-burials she and Maxwell attended and how Maxwell "kept everyone in stitches" with his jokes.
"He was a great karaoke singer, and he loved to sing Japanese songs," she recalled. "So sometimes, when the situation got tense and everybody was serious, serious, serious, he’d lighten the mood with a joke or break out one of his Japanese songs. He was quite a character and a great guy. He was inimitable."
Maxwell spent the last several years in the care of daughters Sheri Maxwell and Brittnie Gouveia, and companion Rowell Kim.
"As a father he was the most loving, supportive and giving person," Sheri Maxwell said. "He taught me to be selfless and to do whatever I can to help other people. That’s the way he lived."
Maxwell is also survived by daughter Kathy Maxwell Juan, son Charles Maxwell Jr., five grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
