Newsmaker
Monday, October 26, 1998
Name: Yukio OzakiAge: 50
Position: Fine arts professor, Chaminade University
Education: Gakushuin University in Tokyo; UH
Pastimes: Free diving; family
As a young man growing up in Tokyo, Yukio Ozaki said he was a self-centered person who didn't like bosses, found it hard to collaborate with others and had no faith to guide him. Isle time led to life's treasure
"I was so self-centered that anything I did, if I felt it wasn't for me, I didn't feel like it," he said. "And ended up drinking myself to no end."
Nowadays, 50-year-old Ozaki is a changed man and believes his faith has led him to his work as a fine-arts professor for the past 12 years at Chaminade University of Honolulu. To his surprise, he was named this month as the 1998 Hawaii Professor of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education.
The award is given to recognize extraordinary dedication to teaching, innovative teaching methods and a commitment to students. The 52 state winners were chosen from more than 550 faculty members nationwide.
"I used to think I achieved everything. . . . But today, everything is in God's grace. And it's not only because I came to Chaminade that I became so full of faith; I think it was the only thing left for me," he said.
Chaminade President Sue Wesselkamper said the university is honored to have Ozaki on its faculty and the award lets the world know, too.
Born and raised in Tokyo, Ozaki entered Gakushuin University to become a flower arrangement teacher, but was discouraged by how the art was taught. Instead, he majored in English literature and planned to use those skills to pursue acting. But he found himself imposing his standards onto other actors and quit.
Ozaki said a theater friend then invited him to live in Hawaii. At age 23 he left Japan and soon found himself as a ceramic potter at the YWCA on Richards Street. He then enrolled as a fine-arts graduate student at the University of Hawaii.
After graduation in 1978, Ozaki found himself without a steady job for the next seven years, although the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts commissioned several pieces of his work for various state buildings.
Ozaki said it was between 1978 to 1985 that he spent most of his time spearfishing and diving. And it was then that the artisan decided to let his faith be the guiding strength in his life.
In 1986, Ozaki was hired by Chaminade. He's in the happiest time of his life now, teaching ceramics and sculpture to 50 students a semester and enjoying his family, wife Elizabeth Train and his sons, ages 11 and 8.
"Every student for me in a way is a sacred challenge, because it teaches me so much," said Ozaki, who was named a Living Treasure of Hawaii in 1994 by the Honpa Honganji Mission.
"It's just this school being so wonderful, and the students being so wonderful. . . . All of them, to me, are God in disguise."
Pat Omandam, Star-Bulletin
