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Wood Craft
After the deaths of John Gerard and his wife, Gerard reunion
draws ‘dinosaurs’Donna, several years ago, John's sisters, BeBee Vetterli, Eino Iaukea, Flapper Yim and Babe Da Silva, and brother, Paul, decided to have annual reunions at BeBee's Haleiwa home. Last Saturday they were joined by 150 family members and friends. Priscilla Jeffery's Na Kupuna o Wahiawa danced. Priscilla and BeBee were song leaders at Waipahu High. BeBee was also a bunny in the San Francisco Playboy Club in the 1960s. Her pal, Marlene Among of Scoozee's, donated dinners as prizes for guests. Guests who have known the Gerards for 25 years or more received Dinosaur Awards. Among many "dinosaurs" attending were Lenora Grace, Don Fowler and Searle Pestana. BeBee had a video of "Surfing for Life," running all day. The film features surfers, John "Doc" Ball, 93; Woody Brown, 88; John Kelly, 81; Rabbit kekai, 79, and peter Cole, 69. Cole attended the party. So did Jack Borfeld, 88, of Arizona, a friend of the Gerards' late dad, John ...
Schaefer joins Pam Gentry
Robyn Schaefer, veteran isle public relations and marketing exec, has been named to head Gentry Communications here. Pam Gentry, who in earlier years was in Hyatt Hawaii's public relations department, opened Gentry Communications in Sausalito, Calif., in 1997. Local clients include Holistica Hawaii and Coldwell Banker ...Top oceanographer and former world-class surfer Rick Grigg, 63, is the subject of a long feature that started on page one of the Aug. 17 L.A. Times. Before surfing off the Outrigger Canoe Club Sunday, Grigg said John Balzar, who wrote the story, "captured the essence of my soul." In 1967, 29-year-old Grigg won the Duke Kahanamoku surfing championship at Sunset Beach. Duke himself told him, "Ricky, you really understand the ocean." Grigg has written a book, "Big Surf, Deep Dives and the Islands -- My Life in the Ocean," in which he describes his passion for the ocean. Three years ago at age 60, Rick surfed Waimea Bay for the last time. He decided not to go back after younger surfers taunted him. "Get out of here, old man," they said. They jeered an expert waterman who spent 15 days in a Sea Lab 250 feet deep with Astronaut Scott Carpenter and others, a man who has been knocked out while scuba diving at 70 feet by a gray whale and a man who fractured his neck at age 51 after being thrown by a big wave at Waimea Bay. If those punks only knew ...
From a group of some 2,000 artists, Maui painter N. Robert Wagstaff's "Lehua o ka manu" (Flower of the Bird), has been selected by the National Park Academy of the Arts as one of the top 100 paintings in the Arts for the Parks competition. Some may remember Wagstaff when he was Norman Botello, Roosevelt Class of '49, the territory's prep mile champ. See his painting at www.wagstaffdesign.com/nupic.jpg ...
MacArthur books isle visit
Jimmy MacArthur, his wife, H.B., and their son, Jamie, 14, are here for a visit. Jimmy said he's had an apartment here for 32 years, going back to "Hawaii Five-0" days ... Sean Penn and Jimmy Connors were in separate parties at Hoku's in the mandarin's recently. The hotel's Veranda now offers Indian, Thai and Japanese curries for lunch ... Flora Springs Winery's John Komes spoke at a wine tasting dinner at Sam Choy's Wednesday. The California winery is named after Komes' mom, the former Flora Cabral, a McKinley grad ... Swiss Inn will be closed Sept. 3-7 to give the staff a break ...
Ben Wood, who sold the Star-Bulletin in the streets
of downtown Honolulu during World War II, writes of
people, places and things every Saturday.
E-mail him at bwood@starbulletin.com