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An end-of-the-year tradition for me is my annual Rearview Mirror Awards, given to those who made, preserved or wrote about Hawaii history.
It’s a way to highlight some of the people who, I feel, are exceptional and went above and beyond what we normally ask of ourselves.
Sometimes they have made a huge contribution, but their names are obscure or forgotten and we need to be reminded of them.
For instance, I gave the first 2022 award to the 1972 Punahou baseball team in October. It won the state championship against Saint Louis with a perfect game. Glenn Goya pitched. and the team allowed no hits, runs, walks or errors. No Hawaii team has done that in the past 50 years, and I gave the team the Perfect Game Award.
Here are the other awards for 2022.
Unsung Hero Award
I haven’t given an award to a chemist before, but as you’ll see, the work of Alice Augusta Ball (1892-1916) was extraordinary, deserving, and long overdue.
Ball was the first female graduate from the University of Hawaii in 1915. Her research led to an injectable treatment for Hansen’s disease (leprosy) that was highly effective and used for decades.
The African American earned a master’s degree in chemistry from the College of Hawaii, which then hired her to teach chemistry. Sadly, she suffered from a chlorine poisoning incident in class, demonstrating a gas mask, and died a few months later in 1916 at age 24.
Chemist Arthur Dean picked up on her research and never credited her as the source. UH professors Kathryn Takara and Stanley Ali uncovered her work, and in 2000 the school recognized Ball and her innovative treatment of Hansen’s disease.
For that groundbreaking research, I select Alice Augusta Ball as the Unsung Hero of the Year.
Force for Good
This year’s local nonprofit award goes to the Outdoor Circle. Hawaii is free from billboards because of its efforts.
This year I also learned that in 1961 the nonprofit fought to keep Kawainui Marsh in Kailua from being developed into 4,000 homes, an 88-acre shopping complex, a 350-acre lake and recreation facilities. It would be sort of like Enchanted Lake today.
The Outdoor Circle and the community resisted, and the plans were dropped. Kawainui Marsh is the largest remaining wetland in the state.
I also learned this year that the 40 Philippine mahogany trees in the Kalakaua Avenue median, between Beretania Street and Kapiolani Boulevard, were a gift of the Outdoor Circle in 1912.
Two final Outdoor Circle achievements I’ll mention were spearheading the fight to stop the building of hotels on the slopes of Diamond Head and preventing high-rise development on Magic Island.
For all the Outdoor Circle has done to preserve and beautify the islands in the past 110 years, I give it the Force for Good Award.
Television Pioneer Award
We lost a great man this year. Carl Hebenstreit, better known as Kini Popo, died in August at the age of 93.
Kini Popo was a radio deejay and was picked to be the first person to speak on local television. On Dec. 1, 1952, KGMB made the first official broadcast, and Kini greeted the viewers with an enthusiastic “Hello, everyone.”
He also hosted the first live interview show on local television, “Sunrise With Kini Popo.” For that work I bestow the 2022 Television Pioneer Award.
Excellence in Journalism
Bob Krauss joined the staff of The Honolulu Advertiser in 1951 and wrote over 8,000 columns during his 55-year tenure there. His “In one Ear” and “Our Honolulu” columns captured the extraordinary experiences of everyday residents in the islands.
Krauss also wrote and published more than a dozen books, which sold more than 150,000 copies.
Our paths crossed a few times, and he gave me some great advice as I was working on my first book. It nudged me toward following in his footsteps and writing about Hawaii’s people, places and companies in my Rearview Mirror column for the past 11 years.
I also loved the zany antics Bob Krauss and Kini Popo pulled, such as Kon Kini — a takeoff of Thor Heyerdahl’s expedition “Kon-Tiki.” They sailed down the Ala Wai Canal to investigate whether the members of the Waikiki Yacht Club could have migrated from the Kapahulu area in the distant past.
Stepping Up to the Plate Award
Eddie Flores Jr. and Johnson Kam — the fourth owners of a Liliha neighborhood drive-in — saw the possibility that people on the mainland and even the world would enjoy Hawaii plate lunches.
They have helped over 200 entrepreneurs own an L&L franchise in Hawaii, California, Washington, Nevada, Arizona, Colorado, Oregon, Utah, Texas, New York, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and Japan.
For sharing the aloha (and the chicken katsu), I give Eddie Flores Jr. and Johnson Kam the 2022 Stepping Up to the Plate Award.
Medical Achievement Award
The first woman to practice Western medicine in Hawaii in 1896, Dr. Tai Heong Kong Li was credited with delivering 6,000 babies, more than any practitioner in the United States at the time.
Kong and her husband, Dr. Khai Fai Li, also had nine children of their own. They opened the first Chinese hospital in Hawaii — Wai Wah Yee Yun Hospital — in Palama in 1896 with the support of over 300 Chinese residents.
In 1917 the hospital acquired 15 acres in Palolo Valley and today is called the Palolo Chinese Home. It’s one of the oldest care homes in the U.S.
Legal Eagle Award
Who was the first female lawyer of Asian ancestry in Hawaii? Her name was Sau Ung Loo Chan.
“My dad was very farsighted,” recalled Chan, who was born in Honolulu in 1906, the youngest of six children of Joe and Choy Shee Loo. “He gave us the very best education. Girls at Punahou in those days were a no-no. His friends criticized him. He said, ‘Nope. Boys or girls, if they want an education, they shall have it.’”
Chan received a law degree from Yale in 1943. She fought for the rights of the poor and the less privileged. Her testimony in 1948 before Congress helped amend unfair aspects of the Immigration Act of 1924.
“Today it’s just assumed that the law is open to women and minorities,” said Kalowena Komeiji of the Hawaii State Bar Association. “But there was a time when it wasn’t open so much to either. And here’s this woman who blazed the trail. It’s a pretty remarkable story.”
Historians of the Year Award
This year I ran a series of articles about Hawaii streets and how they got their names. One of my sources was a series of 83 newspaper columns Clarice Taylor and George Miranda wrote in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin in 1956. They researched and wrote about 1,300 Hawaii street names and their meanings.
Clarice Taylor wrote a column in the Star-Bulletin titled “Tales About Hawaii,” which ran for 14 years. She also helped James Michener with his manuscript for his book “Hawaii.”
For that herculean task, which is even more useful to us 65 years later, I give Clarice Taylor and George Miranda the Historians of the Year Award.
Congratulations to all the award winners. You’ve helped make Hawaii the special place that it is.
The Rearview Mirror Insider is Bob Sigall’s twice-weekly free email newsletter that gives readers behind-the-scenes background, stories that wouldn’t fit in the column, and lots of interesting details. Join in and be an Insider at RearviewMirrorInsider.com. Mahalo!
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