Highland first U.S. volleyball Olympian

Jacob “Jake” Alapaki Highland, a member of the first U.S. Olympic men’s volleyball team and retired Air Force veteran and firefighter, died at home Nov. 23 in Novato, Calif. He was 83.

Highland, the great-uncle of University of Hawaii sophomore outside hitter Kalei Greeley, was born in Honolulu and raised in Papakolea. He was the youngest of Daniel and Rose Highland’s six children.

Nicknamed “The Legend,” Highland played basketball for Roosevelt High. He honed his volleyball skills after joining the Air Force and spent several decades playing on the All-Service team.

In 1964, Highland was selected to the inaugural U.S. Olympic volleyball team, a 14-member squad captained by another Papakolea and Roosevelt product Pedro “Pete” Velasco. Former Punahou boys volleyball and basketball coach Chris McLachlin, now an OC Sports volleyball broadcaster, remembered playing against Highland and his service team while McLachlin was a student at Stanford in the 1960s.

“He was big, strong, a solid blocker, a great all-around player,” McLachlin said. “You didn’t make that ’64 team not being an all-round player.

“As great of a player that he was, he was an even better person. So filled with the aloha spirit.”

Star-Advertiser columnist Ben Wood, Highland’s classmate at both Stevenson Intermediate and Roosevelt High, said “We both were above average height, skinny guys in those World War II days and graduated Roosevelt 1949.

“Jake was a fairly quiet good guy in school. He did not mature physically until after high school. And did he ever mature. “

After joining the Air Force, Highland grew to 6-foot-2 and, at 200 pounds, “was an impressive physical figure,” Wood said.

“Staff Sgt. Jake and 6-5 Master Sgt. John Gay were the 1-2 punch on the Hamilton Air Force Base volleyball team that won the U.S. Military volleyball championship in 1956,” said Joe Lin, a 1952 Roosevelt graduate who also was a member of that Hamilton AFB team. “Six local boys were on that 10-man team, “The other locals on the team were Jimmy Lee, Clarence Armstrong Jr., Ben Acma and Herb Mayor.

“I loved it. Jake was the best.”

Highland, Lin, and Vernon “Bully” Windrath, a 1949 Roosevelt graduate, all moved to California and regularly got together. Highland and Windrath also returned for a number of Roosevelt class reunions.

Highland and wife, the former Florence Gascon of Honomu, were married for 57 years before her death in 2012. He is survived by sons Michael and Kenneth of California; daughters Marilyn Wilson and Ruth Stover of California; daughter Karen Tow of Arizona; 12 grandchildren and numerous great-grandchildren, nieces and nephews.

“I grew up hearing about ‘Jake the Legend,’” Greeley said. “He was so happy that I was coming here.”

A celebration of life will be held in California next year. Interment services will be at Hawaiian Memorial Park also next year.