As coach, Herbert Kuwahara helped shape lives of leaders
By Rod Ohira
Advertiser Staff Writer
Herbert Kuwahara, who organized the Vandals Athletic Club in the 1950s for youngsters ages 9-12 in Kalihi Kai, Palama and Kapalama, died Tuesday at his home in Moanalua. He was 76.
Although he never played baseball, Kuwahara coached the sport and left a lasting impression on his players.
"He was really an unsung hero," said Aloha Stadium manager Eddie Hayashi, who started playing in 1951 on Kuwahara-coached teams and continued until he was 18. "Nobody heard of him because he never sought any recognition for all he did.
"He used to take us camping in the country in a bus that had no roof.He was a humble, soft-spoken man who was a role model for us. I can't remember any of us ever getting into trouble."
Others who wore the maroon and gold of Vandals A.C. before the club changed its name to Kalakaua A.C. in the mid-1950s include Walter Kirimitsu, University of Hawai'i vice president for legal affairs and a former state Intermediate Court of Appeals judge, and Hiram de Fries, retired Shell Oil Co. executive and University of Utah assistant football coach.
Former player Norman Touchi named his Manoa youth baseball team the Vandals as a tribute to the Kuwahara team.
De Fries remembers Kuwahara as a "super teacher who paid attention to details."
"He taught without ever raising his voice," de Fries said. "Everything he did made sense.
"I didn't want to be a catcher, but he made me put on the shin guards and tapped it with the bat. 'See, it doesn't hurt,' he told me. He made me put on the chest protector and mask and did the same thing. I ended up playing catcher."
Kuwahara, the third of 10 children and the oldest of seven boys, never married. A graduate of Farrington High School, he helped his mother, Hatsue, run the family business, Palama Shoe Store, until it closed in the 1990s.
Kuwahara worked at Duty Free Shoppers at Honolulu International Airport for 10 years and was planning to retire this month.
"He did so much for the community and our family," said a brother, Kenneth Kuwahara. "He was such a giving person."
Services will be at 6 p.m. Jan. 12 at Hosoi Garden Mortuary.
Survivors include his sisters, Janet Nakashima, Katherine Kawamura and Betty Kunihiro, and brothers, Clarence, Norman, Warren, Kenneth, Allan and George.
Reach Rod Ohira at 535-8181 or rohira@honoluluadvertiser.com.
