The Rev. Olin Pendleton, hunger activist, dead at 92
By Curtis Lum
Advertiser Staff Writer
The Rev. Olin Pendleton, a longtime community activist who founded a mission to fight hunger in tropical regions, died Jan. 17. He was 92.
Advertiser library photo • July 4, 1999
Pendleton came to Hawai'i with his wife on the S.S. Lurline in 1949 when he was hired by the Church of the Crossroads to organize youth groups at the University of Hawai'i. In 1952, Pendleton went to the Mainland and served at various parishes.
Olin Pendleton and his wife, Betsy, had been married more than 65 years. He'll be remembered for his work to fight famine in the tropics.
The Pendletons returned to Hawai'i in 1962, and the reverend resumed his work to help the less fortunate. He founded the Kokokahi Church in a cottage in Kane'ohe and later expanded it across a 4-acre parcel.
Pendleton taught theology at the former Hawai'i Loa College and lobbied for the creation of Kane'ohe District Park. He fought for increased public access to beaches and in 1973 organized O'ahu's 17 neighborhood community councils into the Council of Presidents, which continues today.
But Pendleton's greatest legacy will be his work to fight famine in the tropics, through the Kokokahi Tropical Hunger Mission Project he put together in 1976. Waimea Williams, project vice chairwoman, said the mission was founded to help the poor in the Philippines, Indonesia, and Papua New Guinea.
Pendleton became aware of famine problems in the tropical belt when he sat in on a lecture by a United Nations agricultural specialist, Williams said. He got together with University of Hawai'i professors to create an anti-famine model on church land.
The project trained people from remote villages to set up sustainable farms on small parcels of land. Williams said the trainees returned to their remote villages to show others how to create the farms at very low cost.
Pendleton was active with the mission until late last year, she said.
"He had a cane in one hand and a pick in the other. He was a real down-to-earth type of man," Williams said. "His heart and soul was reaching out to the poorest of the poor and doing it through basic, self-sustaining organic agriculture."
Pendleton was born April 4, 1910, in Seattle. He was ordained in 1941 at the First United Congregational Church in Arlington, Wash.
He is survived by his wife, Betsy.
A memorial service will be held at 2:30 p.m. Friday at Central Union Church. Donations may be made to Kokokahi Tropical Hunger Mission, 47-004 Okana Place, Kane'ohe, HI 96744.
