Posted on: Wednesday, April 9, 2003

Rev. Theodore Chinen, prison chaplain, dead at 99

By Curtis Lum
Advertiser Staff Writer

The Rev. Theodore Chinen, retired chaplain at the Hawai'i State Prison who did not shy away from criticizing prison policies, died April 4 in Honolulu. He was 99.

Chinen was born Nov. 25, 1903, in Okinawa. He received degrees at the University of Hawai'i and Auburn University in New York, and also attended the Union Theological Seminary.

From 1937 to 1940, Chinen was pastor of Central Kona Union Church, and at Honomu Congregational Church from 1941 to 1946. Chinen moved to Kaua'i, where he served as pastor of the Hanapepe Christian Church from 1946 to 1951.

His last parish ministry was at Pa'ia Congregational Church on Maui from 1952 to 1956.

In 1956 Chinen was named chaplain at the prison, where he ministered to some of the roughest men in the state.

Chinen remained a compassionate man who supported educational and vocational training for the inmates. In 1967, he blamed a lack of communications as the cause of an inmate strike and said prisoner concerns needed to be heard.

Chinen was an outspoken opponent of a plan to move the state prison to Maui. He also was critical of the elimination of his "family conferences," in which convicts and their wives took part in discussions with a featured speaker after chapel services.

When he retired in 1968, Chinen was honored at a party and special program put on by the prisoners.

In his retirement, Chinen returned to his love of Japanese flower arrangement and he and his wife, Florence, founded the Ikebana Institute of Ohara School in Hawai'i.

Chinen is survived by a daughter, Dorinda Reed Teruya; granddaughters, Shelly Obata and Cassie Teruya; and great-granddaughter, Caylee Obata.

Visitation from 5 p.m. tomorrow at Manoa Valley Church, service at 6 p.m.