SAM BREN / COMMUNITY ACTIVIST

Board chairman
served Waikiki well

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By Leila Fujimori
lfujimori@starbulletin.com

Longtime Waikiki Neighborhood Board chairman and community activist Sam Bren died of cancer Friday. He was 86.

Rep. Galen Fox described Bren as a very effective and productive board chairman with strong views.

"He got a lot done for Waikiki," said Rep. Galen Fox (Waikiki). "He's going to be very sorely missed. He was an unusually strong chairman, right up to the very end."

"Not everybody at City Hall liked him, which tells me he was pretty good at what he was doing," said his wife, Elizabeth. "He was always poking his nose into everything he could."

In 1994 and 1998, Bren challenged Duke Bainum for the Honolulu City Council seat representing the Waialae-Waikiki district.

"I'm for development based on good business principles," Bren, who ran a small business, said in 1998.

Born in Kansas City, Mo., Bren moved to Waikiki with his wife 26 years ago from Encino, Calif. He owned Bren Associates Coffee, a company that supplied coffee, coffee machines and supplies for 25 years.

Consumed by an interest in government, particularly city issues, he maintained his chairmanship of the Waikiki Neighborhood Board for nearly a decade and had also been chairman during the 1980s.

Bren loved the neighborhood board, and missed one meeting, maybe two, in his 18 years on the board, his wife said.

"He worked very hard to try to make Waikiki the very best place it could possibly be to live, work and visit," said close friend Brett White.

Bren is also survived by sister Hazel Levey of Los Angeles.

Services for Bren will be held 10 a.m. Thursday at the Waikiki Elks Club.