Marine Lt. Gen. Emerson “Emo” Gardner will be buried next week at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific. Gardner, who died Oct. 11 at the age of 70, was known to many in Honolulu as an active member in many community organizations after retiring in Hawaii at the end of his 37-year military career.

“We get some pretty high- ranking military folks that come through here, and most of them leave,” said Jeff Watanabe, a prominent Hawaii attorney. “Every once in a while, we get lucky and one of them like Emo stays to become part of the community. And he’s been really a wonderful, wonderful addition to our community.”

Gardner was born Oct. 16, 1951, in Chestertown, Md. He graduated from Annapolis High School and then went on to Duke University to major in history. After graduating in 1973, he was commissioned as an officer in the Marine Corps and became a pilot. Over the course of his career, Gardner flew every helicopter the Corps had, including the Presidential Marine One aircraft.

During Operation Desert Storm, Gardner commanded a helicopter squadron leading combat missions, and later served as commander of the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit for two deployments overseeing security operations in the former Yugoslavia and multiple civilian evacuation missions in African countries. Between assignments he graduated from the Norwegian Defense College and studied at the University of Gottingen in Germany as an Olmsted Scholar.

After the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Gardner served as assistant deputy commandant for Marine Aviation where he managed U.S. Central Command’s joint operations center during operations in Afghanistan. In 2002 he came to Hawaii as director for operations at U.S. Pacific Command at Camp Smith. When he arrived, his fellow officers recalled him as a workaholic.

“He was a hugely talented and supremely dedicated officer working national security issues in the aftermath of 9/11, and the reset of our footprint in Asia and the Pacific to deal with a rising China,” recalled retired Adm. Tom Fargo, who commanded PACOM at the time. Fargo said that his fellow officers “could not get him out of the office” until he met a local dentist named Vivian, who he would ultimately marry before the end of his two-year stint at Camp Smith.

Watanabe got to know Gardner when the general reached out to him about a proposal he was pushing to station a Navy hospital ship in the Philippines. Watanabe had been doing foundation work in the Philippines, and Gardner hoped that he could help make the proposal a reality.

“He thought that the Philippines would be a great place to headquarter a ship like that, partly because there were so many needs in that Southeast Asian theater right there — earthquake and hurricanes and tsunamis and everything else,” said Watanabe. “The military had its own priorities, which were different than his, and it never worked out … (but) he had a strong humanitarian side, which frankly I didn’t expect from a Marine general.”

After leaving Hawaii, Gardner served in a variety of roles, including at the Pentagon where he became one of the architects of the defense budget under Defense Secretary Robert Gates. He was a driving force in rapidly fielding mine-resistant and ambush-protected vehicles, better known as MRAPs, to Iraq and Afghanistan as deaths and injuries from improvised explosives mounted in the long, grinding conflicts. He also was a key advocate of the MV-22 Osprey, a “tilt-rotor” aircraft that has the characteristics of both a helicopter and plane but also a controversial development history.

Gardner and his family returned to Hawaii after he retired.

“There was never any question in my mind that Emo was going to retire in Hawaii,” said Fargo. “He could continue to work and make an impact on national security issues. But most important, he and Vivian loved it here, and he was very much looking for a community he could get permanently involved with and make an impact. They jumped right in with the nonprofits.”

Gardner sat on the board of directors for the Japan- America Society of Hawaii and the U.S. Army Science Board, was director of the Olmsted Foundation and was involved with several other organizations. Fargo said that “if you asked for a single word to describe Emo Gardner, I would say he was engaged, fully engaged whether on the golf course and with friends, clearly with his family, or debating or solving an issue of importance to our country.”

Gardner is survived by wife Vivian, four children and two grandchildren. A memorial service is scheduled for 2 p.m. Nov. 18 at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that desired donations be made in his honor to the Marine Corps-Law Enforcement Foundation, mc-lef.org/how-to-donate, or to the Japan- America Society of Hawaii, jashawaii.org/donate.