Daughter gets guardianship of Shipman scion
By Hugh Clark
Advertiser Big Island Bureau
HILO, Hawai'i — A drama surrounding one of the Big Island's most prominent families concluded recently in a Hilo courtroom with its patriarch deemed "incapacitated" and his daughter winning control of her father's assets from his third wife.
Barbara Blackshear Andersen of Hilo, one of four daughters of kama'aina businessman Roy Shipman Blackshear, will become his guardian under an agreement reached last week in Hilo Circuit Court.
The family company, W.H. Shipman Ltd., is the biggest private landowner in Puna, with approximately 20,000 acres leased for agriculture and commercial development.
Andersen filed a petition Aug. 5 seeking control of her father's assets from his wife, Donna Pope Blackshear. The petition stated that Roy Blackshear, 78, was incapacitated, but details have not been provided.
Andersen said in her court filing that his children want "only that he has sufficient funds to provide him the level of care and comfort he deserves in old age."
The guardianship agreement was not made public because Blackshear's wife is on the Mainland and had not signed it. Her attorney, Valta Cook, said she had agreed to the administration of his assets by his daughter.
A brief joint statement issued last week said both women "want what's in Roy's best interest."
Andersen operates a bed-and-breakfast inn at the family's former mansion on Reid's Island in Hilo. Her father lives in another family home near the shoreline at Kea'au Landing where his uncle, the late Herbert Shipman, helped to launch the revival of Hawai'i's state bird — the endangered nene — before World War II.
Blackshear is a nationally recognized collector of phonographs, typewriters and telephones. In her court filing, Andersen said she wanted to ensure that his collections would be protected.
Blackshear is the grandson of W.H. Shipman, who acquired vast holdings in Puna and Ka'u in 1881 from the estate of King Lunalilo under a royal Supreme Court order.
The size of the property — once 64,275 acres — has been whittled down to about 20,000 acres after various sales for expansion of Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park and establishment of Hawaiian Paradise Park subdivision east of Kea'au.
The company leases land to banana, macadamia nut and papaya growers, and also owns W.H. Shipman Business Park, the state's third-largest industrial park, and the Kea'au Shopping Center.
Earlier this year, a $32 million, 32-acre shopping complex known as the Gateway Center was approved for development.
It was not clear if the change in guardianship would affect the family's business interests. The company is headed by Bobby Cooper, who succeeded Blackshear as president and later left. He returned to that post earlier this year.
