Posted on: Saturday, August 4, 2001

Shriners Hospital given $5 million

By Dan Nakaso
Advertiser Staff Writer

Jack Webb at first didn't believe the size of the donation to the Shriners Hospital for Children; he thought the decimal point had to be in the wrong place.

"Is it $40,000?" asked Webb, director of endowments, wills and gifts for the Shriners Hospital, serving Hawai'i and the Pacific. "They said, 'No. It's $4.5 million and will go to over $5 million."

The gift is the largest in the history of the Shriners Hospital in Honolulu and will help children who suffer from a variety of medical problems, such as scoliosis and brittle bone disease, Webb said.

The $5.6 million donation represents one-third of the $17 million estate of Marjorie Hobbis of Rancho Santa Fe, Calif., near San Diego.

Her husband, Charlie, made a fortune selling Mainland newspapers and periodicals through his company, Hawaiian Magazine Distributors, which was the Islands' largest periodical wholesaler.

In 1949, he appeared before the Parent-Teacher Association to defend distributing horror and sex-oriented comic books, which, he said, were mostly read by adults.

In 1962 he was arrested on obscenity charges for selling Henry Miller's book, "Tropic of Cancer." A judge dismissed the case, saying the statutes were unconstitutional.

He joined the Shriners in 1955 and was active until the early 1980s. His wife then died, and Hobbis moved to San Diego. There he met Marjorie, a wealthy widow, said their accountant, Emidio DelConte.

In 1995, Charlie Hobbis died at age 85. In December 1999, Marjorie died at 87. They had no heirs.

Marjorie divided her $17 million estate equally among the Shriners Hospital, the Braille Institute in San Diego — which helped Charlie after he became legally blind — and the Unity School of Christianity in Kansas City.

The only connection to the Unity School appeared to be the school's monthly newsletter that Marjorie received, DelConte said.