When I lived in Hawaii (Oahu) fifty years ago, my pastor in Manoa Valley Honolulu
In 1961 he was named an honorary chaplain of the Papal household, with the title of Monsignor, by (St.) John XXIII, the first native Hawaiian to hold such an honor.
Shortly after Father Joseph Anthony Ferrario became bishop, Msgr. Kekumano left the diocese of Honolulu , to work in the diocese of Juneau. He retired in 1984 and returned to Honolulu
He was proud of his Hawaiian heritage and left a lasting impression in the islands.
In 1997 he was co-author of the essay "Broken Trust" which criticized Kamehameha Schools, the largest private landowner in Hawaii Honolulu
The former president of Punahou School in Oahu , said: "He was a man of such marvelous integrity and willingness to step forward on the issues of the day, including, of course, the recent Bishop Estate controversy.
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| With Hubert Humphrey |
Walter Dods Jr., chairman and chief executive officer of First Hawaiian Bank and one of three trustees of the Queen Liliuokalani Trust wrote, "His strong sense of the value of family and community, his courage, his down-to-earth and accessible nature and his ever-present humor will be forever a part of the legacy of the Queen Liliuokalani Trust. Monsignor's deep and abiding understanding of his Hawaiian heritage sets an outstanding example for all of us and especially the beneficiaries and the staff of the trust."
"Broken Trust" co-author Randy Roth said when Msgr. Kekumano's cancer was announced that everyone should have a hero and Kekumano was one of his. "He's someone I admire greatly, and I hope someday I'll have one-tenth the wisdom and graciousness he has."
Even today there are scholarships in his honor, namely The Kekumano Award & Scholarship which celebrates and perpetuates the spirit of service to others and giving back to the community. It was established in memory of Monsignor Charles A. Kekumano’s selfless contributions to the islands.
In his own words: I was born in Kona, actually on the shores of Kealakekua Bay, and the old family home was directly across from the Captain Cook monument. I should not have been born there because the family had moved to Honolulu Honolulu that she was not doing well, so my grandmother came over and brought me back to Honolulu
The interesting aspect is that my grandfather, of course, was full-blooded Hawaiian with a tremendous respect for everything that was Hawaiian. I remember, for example, when I was five years old, my cousins and I, all of his grandchildren, were taken to Kona to visit my great-grandmother and we were schooled before we left Honolulu by him as to how to address her in Hawaiian. So we learned these expressions in Hawaiian, to speak to her very politely and how you said it to your grandmother and how you said it with respect.
Very early in my life I picked up a deep respect for not only the Hawaiian words, but the way you used them and the differences of your speaking to someone who's of the family, someone your own age, someone who has earned or deserves respect and so forth. My grandmother, step-grandmother, was part-Hawaiian. She also had German and Spanish in her. She raised me from then on. My mother never completely recovered and I saw her only a few times. I always saw her in bed. I was only allowed to come in and I was held up in mid-air over the bed and, "Say hello' to your mother.”
As I knew him, he was a gentle priest driven by his love for the Hawaiian people and had the ability to work out differences that were seemingly unsolvable. He had a love for the Church and did all he could to further the love of Christ among his people. At the time, there was talk that he could be the first Hawaiian born bishop, but he was too controversial in his politics- something like Jesus Himself!
Very early in my life I picked up a deep respect for not only the Hawaiian words, but the way you used them and the differences of your speaking to someone who's of the family, someone your own age, someone who has earned or deserves respect and so forth. My grandmother, step-grandmother, was part-Hawaiian. She also had German and Spanish in her. She raised me from then on. My mother never completely recovered and I saw her only a few times. I always saw her in bed. I was only allowed to come in and I was held up in mid-air over the bed and, "Say hello' to your mother.”
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| With Bishop Scanlan |