Two more Parker Ranch trustees to step down

Associated Press

The two remaining trustees of the Parker Ranch Foundation Trust plan to leave the foundation in the next two years, the trust announced.

Tom Whittemore, 55, will leave next year for other pursuits, while Mel Hewett, 70, plans to retire in 2005, the trust said Friday.

Their departures follow that of Carl Carlson, who announced his intent to leave in August but has continued in his post pending the selection of a replacement.

The nonprofit trust was set up in 1992, the year former Parker Ranch owner Richard Smart died.

It owns the for-profit, 175,000-acre Parker Ranch, which provides income for four charities: the North Hawai'i Community Hospital, Hawai'i Preparatory Academy, Parker School Trust Corp. and the Hawai'i Community Foundation's Richard Smart Fund.

A Trustee Selection Advisory Committee composed of four people named by the trustees and four named by the beneficiaries will make nominations for replacement trustee. The trustees will make the selections.

Carlson, Hewett and Whittemore previously had direct responsibility for ranch operations, but last year a restructuring began that put daily control of the ranch in the hands of David Houle, who was named president and chief executive officer.

He receives policy guidance from a separate board of directors of Parker Ranch Inc.