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Merry Christmas! Every year at this time, I issue my Rearview Mirror Annual Awards for those who have made a contribution to Hawaii. Some of them made history, some researched it, some preserved it and some shared it. All have added to the richness that is our Hawaii. Here’s Part 1. I’ll conclude Jan. 1.
>> Leslie Wilcox: Lifetime Achievement in Journalism
Leslie Wilcox has worked in journalism for 48 years, first at the Kalani High School paper, then the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, KGMB, KHON-TV and, for the last 14 years, at PBS Hawaii, where she was president and CEO.
She created “Long Story Short With Leslie Wilcox,” a PBS Hawaii interview program that recorded over 330 interesting islanders from across the world. If you missed an episode, the 30-minute videos and transcripts are on its website.
She also created the student learning and storytelling TV show “Hiki No” (Hawaiian for “can do”), which is in its 10th year.
This decades-long dedication to interviewing, researching and sharing stories is so impressive that it earns her the Lifetime Achievement in Journalism award. In 2021 Wilcox moves to the mainland to take care of an ailing family member, but I suspect her time in the field is not over.
>> Col. Sherwood Dixon: Heart of Gold Award
I’ve written about many who supported the 442nd Infantry Battalion, such as Earl Finch, who befriended many AJAs (Americans of Japanese ancestry) in Hattiesburg, Miss., where they received basic training.
One of their leaders was Col. Sherwood Dixon, who trained the men of the 442nd and developed a genuine bond with them.
Coleen Logsdon has collected hundreds of letters written by his soldiers to him during and after the war, and turned some of them into a book titled “The Colonel’s Letters.”
Dixon gave them the skills they needed to fight but also shielded them from racial prejudice. After the war he fought for economic and political parity for Japanese Americans.
Over 12,000 people greeted his plane when he flew into Honolulu Airport to be the keynote speaker at the first 442nd reunion dinner after the war.
For these reasons I give him the Heart of Gold Award.
>> Richard Tajiri & Family: Christmas Tradition Award
For 43 years the Tajiri ohana has brought Christmas trees from the Pacific Northwest to Hawaii. Richard Tajiri died in January, seven years short of his goal of bringing Christmas trees to Hawaii for 50 years.
Not to be stopped, his wife, Paula, and three daughters have continued bringing trees to Hawaii and plan to carry him over the finish line.
For this I bestow on the Tajiri ohana the Christmas Tradition Award and wish them well for the next six years.
>> Sarah Richards: Historic Restoration Award
The most beautiful theater in the Pacific, the Hawaii Theatre, opened in 1922. Sixty years later it was on the verge of being turned into a parking lot when Sarah Richards stepped forward. Not on my watch, Richards said.
The Bishop Estate, which owned the land, would never give Consolidated Theatres more than a two-year lease, which made it impossible for it to spend much on restoration.
“When I became involved, the theater was on the verge of being torn down for a parking lot,” Richards, a former Hawaii Theatre Center president, told me.
Richards raised over $30 million to complete the interior and exterior renovation and preserve the theater, which reopened on April 28, 1996.
For that, I give Sarah Richards the Historic Restoration Award for 2020.
>> Michael Lilly: Book of the Year
Former U.S. Attorney Michael Lilly has written an interesting and important book this year. “Nimitz at Ease” sheds light on Adm. Chester Nimitz, the man, focusing on his off-duty time as fleet admiral during World War II.
“Lilly has done a masterful job of humanizing this American icon while telling a story of Hawaiian lifestyle and friends, and conveying a ‘sense of place’ about Hawaii, Nimitz and his close association with the Walker family,” wrote retired Adm. R.J. “Zap” Zlatoper.
Lilly is a grandson of Sandy and Una Walker, a close friend to Nimitz, who often spent weekends at their Laie, Oahu, beach house.
It’s a side of Nimitz that hadn’t been told until now.
>> Ruth Lawson: Amateur Historian of the Year
On Dec. 7, 1941, Ruth Lawson was stirring at Schofield Barracks when she heard planes in screaming power dives, followed by loud explosions. Then machine gun shell casings rained down on her house.
Twenty minutes later there was a knock at the door. Lawson feared Japanese soldiers, but it was a GI. “Bullets and shell casings spattered on our front walk so close the young soldier jumped inside the door almost knocking me down,” she wrote.
“He immediately straightened his helmet and said ‘As I was saying, lady, if you get dressed I’ll take you to a safer place.’ It was only then that I realized I was still in my nightgown and bare feet.”
Lawson wrote eloquently and in detail about this important time for Hawaii (see my June 5, 2020, column), and for that I bestow on her the Amateur Historian of the Year award.
>> Jennifer Doudna and Andrea Ghez: Exceptional Achievements in Science Award
In 2020 two local women won Nobel Prizes. Jennifer Doudna, a Hilo High School graduate, was awarded a Nobel Prize in chemistry for co-inventing CRISPR, the gene-editing tool that is revolutionizing medicine.
Andrea Ghez won a Nobel Prize in physics for research that revealed a supermassive black hole inhabits the center of the Milky Way galaxy. She’s lived on the Big Island and used Mauna Kea observatories since 1995.
>> Bob Hampton: Renaissance Man Award
In the 1970s there was a renaissance taking place in Hawaiian music, and Bob Hampton’s Territorial Tavern was at its center.
The Territorial Tavern occupied the corner of Bishop Street and Ala Moana Boulevard in the Dillingham Transportation Building.
Downtown seems an unlikely place for a successful nightclub, but it was the place where the Beamer Brothers, Booga Booga and the Brothers Cazimero came together.
Other established groups, such as Olomana, Country Comfort, Leon & Malia, Jon Osorio & Randy Borden, and the Sons of Hawaii found receptive audiences there and soared to new heights.
For that I give Territorial Tavern owner Bob Hampton the 2020 Renaissance Man Award.
>> Jack Cione: Lifetime Achievement in Entertainment
He took Hawaii by storm. Jack Cione, handsome and debonair at 93, came to Hawaii in 1958 and jumped into the nightclub business. He eventually owned 14 of them, including the Dunes, Forbidden City and Le Boom Boom Club.
He brought in such entertainers as Judy Garland, Sammy Davis Jr., Sophie Tucker, Lenny Bruce, Redd Foxx, Pearl Bailey, Della Reese, Wayne Newton and Screamin’ Jay Hawkins.
Cione had a topless lunch show at the Dunes in 1971, and a secretary asked for something women could enjoy. He said he’d put on a show, if she could get 50 women to come.
To his surprise, over 120 women showed up for his first Naked Waiter Review, and a week later 400 came. The show became daily and was sold out for three years. It made headlines around the world.
Cione has written three books — one, stories from the naked waiters, soon to be published — and has put on extravaganzas with 70- and 80-year-old singers and dancers in elaborate costumes at Arcadia Retirement Residence, where he lives today.
>> Wendy Tolleson: Outstanding Hawaii Historian Award
I am not a trained historian, but turn to a group of over 20 local professionals with a myriad of questions as I seek to clarify many facts and issues.
Wendy Tolleson, a historian for Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation (HART), is one of the best. She grew up on Ford Island, which I wrote about last year, and has a wealth of knowledge, maps and photos, which she has freely shared with my readers and me.
She’s shared many of her research techniques and sources and helped me raise my standards. For that I deem her the Outstanding Hawaii Historian of the Year.
Another group of noteworthy persons will receive awards next week. (Cue the fireworks!) I congratulate all these outstanding individuals and wish all of you a merry Christmas.
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Have a question or suggestion? Contact Bob Sigall, author of the five “The Companies We Keep” books, at Sigall@Yahoo.com.
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