ROD THOMPSON / RTHOMPSON@STARBULLETIN.COM
Genesis and Elizabeth Lee Loy stand in a corner of their Hilo home surrounded by photos of their family and 12 children.
Couple raises a
successful family of 12The Lee Loys instilled in
their children a drive to succeed
HILO >> The 12 children of Genesis and Elizabeth Lee Loy include two doctors, three lawyers, a variety of other professionals and even a son -- sculptor Sean Browne -- designated as a Living Treasure.
Genesis, 84, a retired telephone company supervisor, and Elizabeth, 80, a lifelong homemaker, raised their successful family while quietly protesting throughout their lives against injustices to the Hawaiian people.
Most recently, Genesis, as a member of the Royal Order of Kamehameha, has worked to gain federal and state recognition of the traditionally sacred nature of Mauna Kea. The Order contested building of up to six "outrigger" telescopes on Mauna Kea around the two giant Keck telescopes. A judge found the project lacked a required environmental study and a hearing officer found a management plan was inadequate.
But the Lee Loys' biggest achievement is probably their children.
How did these parents in the Keaukaha Hawaiian Homes section of Hilo instill in their children a drive to succeed?
"Pencils," answered Elizabeth. "Some of the kids at Keaukaha School didn't have pencils. They couldn't do their homework."
Homework was important, the Lee Loy children remember.
"I owe my mom everything," said the oldest child, Gerard, an attorney. "She made us do all the stuff we didn't like doing. I had to stay upstairs until my homework was done."
Added Namaka Rawlins, "There was no play until the work was done." Rawlins, the Lee Loys' fifth child, is director of a Hawaiian language immersion program.
If there was no schoolwork, Elizabeth found housework for the children to do, Rawlins said. The family had a washing machine, but the children were required to wash their clothes by hand on a washboard. That included the boys, Elizabeth added, and it included them doing their own ironing.
Work in responsible positions was part of the family history. Genesis' grandfather, a Chinese immigrant whose family name was Lee followed by the personal name Loy, ran a sugar mill on the Hamakua Coast. Genesis' father was a clerk at American Factors.
Elizabeth's family includes the part-Irish Purdy ohana of Waimea.
As a girl on Oahu, Elizabeth used to walk a 10-foot-wide right of way to the sea at Kahala to collect seafood. One day, a private landowner closed the shoreline access with barbed wire, and the city of Honolulu did nothing to reopen it, she remembered.
In 1973, Genesis worked with others to oppose scientific geothermal drilling inside Kilauea Caldera in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. "They were drilling in the mouth of Pele," he said. He also opposed exploratory and commercial geothermal drilling outside the park starting in 1976.
A major event came in 1978, when Hawaiians demonstrated on the runway of Hilo airport, built on Hawaiian Homes land without payment to the department. Genesis, Elizabeth and Gerard protested up to the fence line, but avoided trespassing and arrest, unlike 60 others.
Meanwhile, the kids were growing up, often being taken to Hilo library. Keeping track of them was a chore. Once, as the family drove away, the kids shouted, "Ma, we forgot Lambert," Elizabeth said.
"I'd go to the library because I loved cowboy books," Gerard said. "That's how I got off the island in my mind."
He was an altar boy. "When you're stuck at home, going to church is an outing," he said.
He also hunted with his father on Mauna Kea before there was a road to the summit for observatories.
Rawlins, a 4-H member, raised a cow in the back yard and served as secretary for her club.
Son Blase came back from Vietnam a "true rebel," Elizabeth said. But he entered a premedical program at the University of Hawaii at Hilo and became a doctor, like his brother Lambert who followed.
"Blase has saved people's lives," Gerard said. Rawlins, at the preschool language program, is saving families and the Hawaiian culture, he said.
Gerard recently won freedom for a man who falsely confessed to a murder to protect the real murderer, his wife.
"We're successful because we help our community," Gerard said.
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Community contributors
These are the children of Genesis and Elizabeth Lee Loy, listed in the order of their birth.>> Gerard Lee Loy, lawyer, private practice
>> Blase Lee Loy, doctor, retired
>> Bridgit Bales, personnel manager, Pearl Harbor shipyard
>> Lambert Lee Loy, doctor, private practice
>> Namaka Rawlins, administrator, Punana Leo immersion program
>> Sean Browne, sculptor of statues of King Kalakaua and Prince Kuhio in Waikiki, named a Living Treasure by Honpa Hongwanji
>> Nakoolani Warrington, charter school teacher
>> Elizabethanne Masaoka, school building and grounds keeper, mother of baseball star Onan Masaoka
>> Monica Morris, lawyer, state Ethics Commission
>> Emmett Lee Loy, lawyer, private practice
>> Hilary Lee Loy, medical problems since childhood, under continuing treatment
>> Ian Lee Loy, Big Island police officer
