Hawai‘iloa creator
By Kulani Mahikoa
dies in auto accident
Star-BulletinMaster wood carver and canoe builder Wright E. Bowman Jr. died in a single-car accident on the Big Island yesterday. He was 53. The kahuna kalai wa‘a (master canoe builder) designed and built the Hawai‘iloa, a 57-foot, twin-hulled canoe and successor to the Hokule‘a, which his father, Wright Bowman Sr., helped build.
According to police reports, Bowman had been traveling toward Hilo on Route 19 at about 7:15 a.m. when the accident occurred. Officers determined that his 1987 Cherokee sedan crossed the center line and struck a guard rail. He was the only person in the car.
Bowman was taken to the North Hawaii Community Hospital in Waimea where he was pronounced dead at 8:24 a.m.
An autopsy will be performed.
In 1992, Bowman was commissioned by the federally funded Explorations Project of the Native Hawaiian Culture and Arts Program at the Bishop Museum to build a canoe from authentic materials used by ancient Polynesian canoe builders.
Bowman had his own ideas about the design of the ship, which he built along the lines of a racing canoe, much sleeker than its sister ship, the Hokule‘a.
His challenge was to fashion the canoe from two 65-foot Alaskan spruce logs.
He used lauhala for the sails and sennit for the cordage, as in the ancient days.
He completed the canoe in 1995, and the vessel took sail, retracing the route of the first Hawaiian migration from the Marquesas.
Bowman developed his skill and love for woodworking in his father’s workshop, where he played as a child.
Jack Leong, 71, dies;
By Kulani Mahikoa
founded Dave's Ice Cream
Star-BulletinEntrepreneur Jack You Hong Leong, owner of Dave's Ice Cream Inc., died from a heart attack on Saturday. He was 71. Leong started the ice cream chain in 1982 because of his craving for something sweet. It was named for his son.
Known for its unusual island flavors, such as green tea, lychee, mango, poha and kulolo, the store is at 14 locations on Oahu, in Arizona and Saipan.
Leong, who was the company's chairman, always said that customer's preferred flavor over fat.
He was also owner of JEL Inc., a distributor of hardware items; JRD Enterprises Inc., a distributor of telephones, answering machines and other electronics; and Process Equipment Pacific Inc., a distributor of equipment for sewage and waste-water treatment facilities.
In early 1997, he started Wings Over Hawaii, a company formed to breed and sell butterflies to an international market.
Butterflies, according to a close friend, was one of his passions.
Leong was also chairman and director of the ill-fated Mid Pacific Airlines, which closed in 1988. The active businessman graduated from McKinley High School in 1943. He started his career with Pan American World Airways, where he worked in the air-freight department.
After leaving Pan American in 1949, he started Hawaiian Freight Forwarders, which he operated until 1952.
In 1952, he joined Airborne Freight Corp., where he was in charge of international sales.
He left the company in 1969 to start Mutual Distributors, a wholesale hardware company.
He also spent his career as president of Capital Air Freight, and in 1968, Leong was named Honolulu senior vice president of the internationally based Airborne Freight Corp.
Leong started his last freight company, Eden Air Freight, Inc., in 1988 with long-time colleague Lawrence I. Rodberg from California.
Leong was active as a parent and benefactor at St. Louis High School which his three sons attended.
He established two scholarships at St. Louis, the Edith Leong scholarship for Hawaiian studies and the Jack and Edith Leong Educational Grant, a $1,000 scholarship for two incoming students given each year.
He is survived by wife Edith Lau Leong; daughter Diane Bishop; sons James, Robert and David; sisters Helen Leong Lam and Violet Leong Kau; six grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
Star-Bulletin reporter Jerry Tune
contributed to this report.
Hildegard Akee, 65, of Waipahu, a retired supervisor with Child Care Center at Fort Shafter, died Friday in Waipahu. Born in Oberhausen, Germany, she is survived by husband James K.; daughters Hildegard “Lani” and Linda K.; brother Paul Flanz; sister Klara Driessen; and three grandchildren. Services: 12:30 p.m. Thursday at Mililani Mortuary-Waipio, mauka chapel. Call after 10:30 a.m. Burial: Hawaii State Veterans Cemetery. Casual attire. No flowers.
