KAHULUI, Maui — Services will be tomorrow for William K. Malo Jr., the former sheriff of Kalaupapa who traveled the world as an advocate for people with Hansen's disease.

Malo, a Kahului resident, died June 24 at age 84.

He was born Jan. 14, 1923, in La'ie, and at age 16 was diagnosed with leprosy, now known as Hansen's disease. Malo was separated from his family and sent to Moloka'i's remote Kalaupapa settlement in 1940, where he was later joined by his sister and two younger brothers.

In 1946, he was one of six Kalaupapa patients chosen for treatment with the sulfone drug Promin, which was found to successfully treat the bacterial disease. Although he was eventually cured, Malo continued to live at the settlement and became sheriff and president of the Kalaupapa Lions Club.

After working on a project in Kalaupapa for a Honolulu construction company, he was offered a job on O'ahu, and in 1965 he made the courageous decision to leave the isolation of the familiar community.

"He refused to be identified by the disease," said Valerie Monson, who lived in Kalaupapa for two years in the 1990s while doing research on the settlement.

"There were still a lot of misconceptions about the disease and he knew he was going to face a lot of discrimination and prejudice. When I asked him how he dealt with it, he said that when he met someone, he could tell if they weren't comfortable and didn't want to be around him, and he'd say, 'Too bad for you. You don't get to meet me and I'm just going to go meet someone else.' "

Malo had been sent to Kalaupapa long before his little brother, Makia Malo, got to know him. The younger Malo, who arrived in the settlement at age 12, later made his own decision to move away from Kalaupapa in 1972.

"What's so impressive is that he dared to go out, and I don't know if that played a role, but when it came time, that's the choice I made as well," said Makia Malo, 72, a master storyteller who lives in Honolulu but maintains a cottage in Kalaupapa.

In 1988, both Malo brothers attended the 13th International Leprosy Congress in the Netherlands to show the human side of the disease and lift the stigma associated with the illness.

William Malo became active in the "Quest for Dignity" campaign run by IDEA, the International Association for Integration, Dignity and Economic Advancement, a human rights group formed in 1994 to educate people about Hansen's disease. He often appeared as a speaker at IDEA exhibits around the globe.

"He was one of the first people to get involved in international affairs," Monson said. "Just two years ago he went to a conference in South Africa. It's amazing he traveled that far."

Malo was fluent in Hawaiian and was a revered kupuna. On Maui, he was a member of the Kahului Maui Airport Lions Club, the Waiehu Ward of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and Alu Like.

Visitation will begin at 9 a.m. tomorrow at Borthwick Norman's Mortuary, with a service at 10 a.m. Burial will be at 1 p.m. at Valley Isle Memorial Park.

Reach Christie Wilson at cwilson@honoluluadvertiser.com.