Group may take over Nu'uanu cemetery
By Mike Gordon
Advertiser Staff Writer
It's a daunting task for a group of volunteers, but the Friends of Honolulu Memorial Park say they are close to taking over the financially troubled Nu'uanu cemetery.
Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser
Friends member Ann Ono said the majority owners of the cemetery — brothers Manning, James and Montague Richards — have given their 90 percent share of the cemetery to her nonprofit group, a collection of mostly retirees who have loved ones buried or inurned at the cemetery.
Roy Kino of Kailua visits his son's grave at Honolulu Memorial Park twice a week and recently noticed that its four bronze flower vases were missing. "That is a sad thing to see someone steal from a tomb," he said, noting other missing vases.
The Friends plan to merge with a nonprofit organization — Kyoto Gardens Park — which belongs to the cemetery's current owners, Ono said.
The owners closed the cemetery this month, turning off water, locking up the offices and restrooms and ending grounds maintenance. The families of nearly 8,000 people were left angry and anxious, forced to tend to the grounds on their own and not knowing what was to become of the final resting place for their relatives.
But the new developments gave rise to some hope as the Friends said they are getting the 45-year-old cemetery from its owners.
"They gave it to us," Ono said yesterday. "They basically don't want to run the park. They have transferred the papers over to us, and right now we are in the legal process of finishing up that take over."
Honolulu attorney Christian Porter, who is helping the Friends, said yesterday he was optimistic that the deal would go through. But he said he still needs to work out details with the cemetery's minority stockholder.
"There are still some hoops we have to jump through," Porter said. "It is in limbo right now. If no one assumes some kind of ownership, the state takes over."
The Friends of Honolulu Memorial Park will hold an informational meeting at 11 a.m. Saturday in the Kawananakoa Middle School auditorium. It probably will not be the last chapter, though, for a cemetery that has had problems for several years.
Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser
The Richards brothers have said they have lost money since inheriting the park 30 years ago. Families who own plots and niches say the owners have not done enough to maintain the cemetery's landmark pagoda.
The cemetery grounds at Honolulu Memorial Park have deteriorated since the park was closed. A posted sign dated in September asks that families remove their dead flowers and trash from the premises.
Honolulu Memorial Park filed for bankruptcy on December 2001 and listed assets of $815,932. The filing listed monthly income of $2,000 and monthly expenses of $11,000.
The owners said it would take $1 million to repair the pagoda. Their attorney could not be reached for comment yesterday.
A bankruptcy court judge rejected the owners' bankruptcy plan because it was not filed by its Sept. 2 deadline.
That left the Friends with no choice, said Ono, a 65-year-old retired elementary school teacher from Kailua.
"We wanted a say in how the park was run," she said. "The bulk of us — 10 or 12 of us — have been working voluntarily since February."
Their ranks include several retired school teachers, a retired social worker, retired businessmen and people still working every day.
"We have no expertise," she said.
But everyone has a loved one buried or inurned at the cemetery. And the old-timers, people in their 80s who purchased plots and niches years ago, have turned to the Friends to sort out the mess, Ono said.
"They are very concerned," she said. "One person was close to dying and the family didn't know what to do if that person passed away."
Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser
She told them to hang on to the person's cremated remains so they could be placed in a family niche later on.
These bronze flower vases are similar to the four missing from Roy Kino's family niche at Honolulu Memorial Park. Kino says thieves have found the vases at the cemetery to be an easy target.
The cemetery grounds have deteriorated significantly since the park was closed. Family members have been to the park to clean up dead floral arrangements, but several overstuffed plastic garbage bags remain and a donated trash bin was overflowing Monday.
But with no one regularly watching the cemetery, thieves with a taste for bronze have found it an easy target, said Roy Kino, who tends his son's niche twice a week.
When he went to water the grass by the family niche last Friday, he was shocked to see that someone had stolen his four bronze flower vases.
That's when he noticed that 14 other graves had been victimized. By Monday, six more vases from family tombs nearby had also been stolen.
"That is a sad thing, to see someone steal from a tomb," Kino said as he carefully picked his way through the cemetery, cane in hand.
Police in the Kalihi-Nu'uanu area have only received two reports of stolen bronze vases — including one from Kino — in the past two months.
At most, the thieves get $5 to $10 for the vases, which can cost $246 to $267 to replace.
Kino believes most families are unaware of the thefts.
"People still don't realize that their tomb has been desecrated," he said. "Some people only come once a month or on holidays."
He tapped his cane on the black marble of a relatively new and ornate niche.
"This lady will be very disappointed," he said.
Two vases had been taken from bronze bases cemented to the niche. Each remaining base read: "Husband and Father, Beloved."
Reach Mike Gordon at mgordon@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8012.
