Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 25, Number 2, 1 February 2008 — HE HOʻOMANAʻO IN MEMORIAM [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

HE HOʻOMANAʻO IN MEMORIAM

Family, and the Association of Hawaiian Civic Clubs lost a compaS' sionate, kind and devoted conununity leader Dec. 10 with the passing of Judith Nalani Gersaba, who was president of the association's O'ahu

Council until the time of her death. She was 61. "She was kind, she was strong-headed, she was very conunitted," said Lynette Cruz, president of Ka Lei Maile Ah'i Hawaiian Civic Club. j Gersaba, who had a strong "desire to reconnect with the ancestors, those who eame before," was also steadfast in her conunitment to do what's iight and what it means to be pono, Cmz said. Gersaba was remembered Dec. 23 in a service at Mililani Mauka, with a mele oli led by cousin Manu Boyd, a eulogy by her children Raoul and Gabrielle, hula by Leimomi Khan, and memories shared by friends including Cruz and Honolulu Poliee Capt. Frank Fujii, with whom she worked during her 33-year career as a dispatcher and dispatch supervisor. Gersaba and her husband George, a fonner polieeman, visited Las Vegas four times in 2007, trips she always enjoyed. George remembers his wife as a self-taught critical thinker with "lots of compassion." In the 1990s, she was among the first to volunteer for training in peer counseling and critieal incident debriefing at HPD, whieh allowed her to help other

employees talk through the stresses of the job. Gersaba was a 1964 graduate of Kamehameha Schools. She is survived by George, sons Travis (Susie) Dela Cruz and Raoul (May Rose) Dela Cruz, daughters Lisa Dela Cruz-Kaho'ano and Gabrielle Gersaba, brothers Kimo Kaho'ano, Keith Kaho'ano and Patrick Parker, sisters Helene Wong and Raylene Diaz, and her mo'opuna, Hope Dela Cruz. □

AUĒ, UA HALA^ Judith Nalani Gersaba