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The Honolulu Advertiser

Posted on: Thursday, December 30, 2004

Joseph Curtis Tyler Jr., pioneer in coffee industry

Advertiser Staff

HILO, Hawai'i — Joseph Curtis Tyler Jr., a former business executive who survived the Dec. 7 attack on Pearl Harbor, died Dec. 19 at Kona Community Hospital. He was 88.

Tyler was a pioneer in the design of the first completely automated coffee-processing facility and also had a part in the development of the first instant coffee in Hawai'i .

He was born in Spokane, Wash., on May 11, 1916, and attended the New Mexico Military Institute and the University of California at Berkeley.

After graduating from high school, he served two years in the merchant marine, working for the W.R. Grace Line traveling between New York and South America. He first visited Hawai'i during a training cruise on the battleship New York as a member of the reserve officer training corps, and returned to Honolulu a year later to work for American Factors.

He married Thelma Weeks of Kona in 1938, and was summoned for active duty as a Navy officer in July 1941.

Tyler had shore duty the day of the Pearl Harbor attack, and years later told the story of being strafed by a Japanese plane, said his son, former Big Island County councilman J. Curtis Tyler III. The elder Tyler had command of three ships during the war, and moved to Kona afterward to resume work with American Factors.

He retired in 1962 as the company's island operations manager, but went on to work in Puerto Rico and New York for the International Basic Economy Corp.

He returned to Kona with his family in 1976, where he was active in Christ Church Episcopal as a senior warden and with the Rotary Club. Tyler headed the citizens committee that developed the first Kona community plan and founded the Full Life Corp., a nonprofit agency serving persons with special needs.

In addition to his wife and son Curtis III, he is survived by son Charles Oudin of Kona; daughter Elizabeth Annette of Kona; and four grandchildren and a great-grandchild.

A memorial service will be held at 10:30 a.m. Jan. 15 at Christ Church Episcopal in Kealakekua. The family requests casual attire and suggests donations to Full Life Corp., 79-7460 Mamalahoa Highway No. 207, Kealakekua, HI 96750; or to Christ Church Episcopal, P.O. Box 545, Kealakekua, HI 96750.

Arrangements are being made by Dodo Mortuary Kona.