Outstanding swimmer touched lives of numerous isle students

Some people create bucket lists, considering themselves lucky to cross off even 50 percent of the items in their lifetimes.

Diane Stowell lived her bucket list completely, often taking others along in her adventures.

Swimming, paddling, running — there never was an athletic challenge that the Hawaii Waterman Hall of Fame inductee didn’t want to take on and conquer. Her influence, however, went beyond sports: Stowell, a teacher and counselor, generously opened her home to her Punahou School students and other youths looking for guidance and a friend.

Diane McLean Stowell died June 8 in Honolulu at age 83. A celebration of life service, open to the public, is at 8:30 a.m. Monday at Outrigger Canoe Club. Scattering of ashes will follow.

“One of the things that’s been amazing are all the letters I’ve received from people after she died,” son Dean Stowell said. “They wrote, ‘Hey, your mom gave me a home’ or ‘She got me through 10th grade.’ She touched so many people’s lives.

“I had to share her with a lot of people but I also shared in the adventures. So much of who I am today is because of my mom. I won the lottery when it came to moms. I am so lucky and blessed.”

The Punahou School graduate swam for the Buffanblu then went on to become a professional synchronized swimmer during her undergraduate years at UCLA. She added a master’s degree from the University of Redland and a credential in psychology from California State University, Fullerton, returning in 1980 to Honolulu, where she made a mark on the Hawaii and national sports landscape.

Over 30 years, Stowell was ranked among the top 10 U.S. swimmers more than 400 times, setting U.S. Masters Swimming national records at three different breaststroke distances and earning USMS All-American honors 20 times. At the 2000 World Masters Swimming Championships in Munich, she took silver in five age-group events.

In 1991, Stowell was the first woman to be awarded Outrigger Canoe Club’s Winged O for outstanding athletic achievements. Her resume included twice being named the Senior Female Athlete of the Year by the Honolulu Quarterback Club, the state female runner of the year and the Honolulu Advertiser’s Top 10 Athlete of the Decade in 1990.

As a masters division canoe paddler, she was part of nine state regatta championship crews and two top Na Wahine O Ke Kai crews. Stowell was elected to the Hawaii Swimming Hall of Fame in 2003 and the Punahou Athletic Association Hall of Fame in 2013, the latter four years after she received her alma mater’s Old School Award.

The licensed psychologist taught psychology and honors chemistry at Punahou from 1981-2001, and taught summer seminars on working with at-risk youth at Oxford University, the University of Edinburgh and the University of Hawaii.

Stowell served on the Outrigger Duke Kahanamoku Foundation board of directors from 1992-98, chairing its scholarship and grants committee. Her volunteer work included Hawaii Friends of Restorative Justice, Boys &Girls Club of Hawaii, the Sierra Club, the Nature Conservancy, the Mediation Center of the Pacific, Waikiki Swim Club and the Hawaii state prison system as a counselor. She also served on Gov. Linda Lingle’s Policy Advisory Board for Elder Affairs.

In addition to her son, Stowell is survived by daughter Denise Beaumont, brother James “Bruno” McLean, three grandsons and one great-grandson.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Outrigger Duke Kahanamoku Foundation and Hawaii Friends of Restorative Justice.