Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 29, Number 5, 1 May 2012 — My friend J.B. Fisher [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

My friend J.B. Fisher

n my 64 years I have been blessed by Akua in many speeial ways by many speeial people: a great wife who has learned ho'omanawanni flex-

ibility, and after four deeades that indecision in a kāne is not a bad thing; three taīented sons with significant others who have touched our lives in big and small ways; a brother who has always been there for us - the eall goes out and there is Ben; wonderfuī parents who died young but still surround

us with love 50 years later \friends, manyfriends, like Alvin Wakayama, Eli Nahulu, Frank Rapoza, Nani Lee, Miehael Chun, Walter Okura, Collin Onaka and David Matsuura; 'ohana - Uncles, Aunties, cousins, kissing cousins - hundreds of them; associates - too many to name as it would take pages. Fo!ks who have made a big difference in my life, with whom I have broken bread and share eommon values, who desire only the good and the very best for our families and our island eommunity, who give their time, talent and treasure and make our island home the special plaee it is. And then there are those servant leaders who work arduously to bring out the best in us. Preachers and teachers, kahu and kumu: kahu like David Ka'apu, AbrahamAkaka, David Kaupu, Samuel Keala, Wendell Davis, Dean Kauka, Billy Mitchell, Sonny Shimaoka; kumu like Stan Morikawa, Joe īanaka, Dorothy Baird, Hugh Clancy, Darrell Scheutz, Beth Powers and J.B. Fisher, who taught creative writing while I was at Kamehameha School for Boys in the '60s. I wish I could write an entire chapter on eaeh of them because they so deserve it, but space constraints do not allow for that thus I will write a smidgen about J.B. Fisher. J.B. was from Paradise, Pennsyl-

vania, fresh off the airplane when we ran into eaeh other (1963); drove a red Healy Mark IV; dressed prim and proper - neektie hli/i'i' fanov skids Ue

was tasked to teach those of us who said "da kine" and "Heh, what you sed?" to say, "I beg your pardon, could you please repeat that?" And with patience and humor, he did help us find another way to eommunicate (not necessarily a better way but "annadah whey"). I owe a great debt of

gratitude to J.B . He taught me how to speak and write with refinement and elegance. I graduated from Kamehameha in 1966 and did not see J.B. again until 2010. After a long hiatus, we met on a Sunday morning after church at Mana Christian 'Ohana here in Waimea. Last September J.B. went to Queen's to deal with a heart-valve issue; surgery went well but while recovering at the Rehabilitation Hospital of the Paeille, he suffered two strokes. Fortunately he was at the hospital and was tended to quickly, henee is only partially paralyzed on his right side and is now going through intensive therapy (physical and speech) at Hale Ho'ōla Hāmākua in Honoka'a. He is coming along and will hopefully be, Akua willing, playing the 'ukulele and shagging golf balls soon. J.B. and I share a love for writing. His first book, titled Outside of Paradise - Growing Up Amish, was just released last month. It's a book about his growing up Amish in Paradise, Pennsylvania. He also talks about his time here in Hawai'i as a teacher at Kamehameha. It's a great read. I say this not because he's my former teacher and dear friend, but because it is. J.B., like so many others, left one Paradise for another, Hawai'i, our Pacific Paradise. Long and short of this story? Hawai'i nō ka 'oi. ■

Rūbert K. Lindsey, Jr. Trustee, Hawai'i