Wood Craft Ben Wood

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Multi-talented educator Eleanor Bilsborrow, 92, dies

ELEANOR BILSBORROW, a University of Hawaii professor emeritus, died July 30 in Hospice Hawaii Palolo Home at the age of 92. Besides teaching, Eleanor was an artist, composer and singer. She was someone special for me as she steered me into journalism. She was my freshman English teacher at UH in 1950. I wrote a theme in her class critiquing coaches I had before entering college. She liked it and sent me to Ka Leo, the student newspaper. I was wary about that because I wasn't much of a typist. In fact, that theme I wrote was typed by Faye Brash (now Faye Parker), the little 13-year-old sister of one of my close friends, Calvin Brash. Up to that time the only newspaper experience I had was selling the Star-Bulletin during World War II when I was 11. But before long, I was Ka Leo's sports editor and a columnist. After working as a journalist in Germany for Stars and Stripes for almost 10 years, I visited Eleanor, who had a high position in the UH English department, and thanked her for getting me started in this business. Years later when Eleanor and her companion of 67 years, Pat O'Brien, 95, also a UH professor emeritus, lived at One Kalakaua, I socialized with them, thanks to Realtor Alice Clay. Alice looked after the pair and reconnected me with them. A celebration of Eleanor's life will be held at 10 a.m. Friday at the Outrigger Canoe Club ... Incidentally, Faye Parker, that little girl who typed my theme, married actor Doug McClure. They were friends with many young actors and actresses in the late 1950s and '60s, such as Clint Eastwood, Robert Wagner and Jill St. John. She also became friends with Nancy Sinatra, her dad, Frank, and other showbiz stars ...

SHEILA WATUMULL HAS A YACHTING PASSION

SHEILA WATUMULL knows the Steve Hastings family of Corpus Christi, Tex. Hastings is owner-captain of the Transpac yacht Passion, which has a blue and white color scheme. His 10-person crew this year included his wife, Tammy, and kids Holly, Carter and Cody. Sheila threw a party for them at the Waikiki Yacht Club July 26 and gave them blue and white Kahala aloha shirts ... Former Ala Moana Hermes boss Yuki Ozawa now runs Hermes in Costa Mesa, Calif., and Donna Hodnefield has stepped up into his spot here ...