RAYMOND HIGUCHI / LOCAL ARTIST

COURTESY OF THE HIGUCHI FAMILY Raymond Higuchi enjoyed oil painting after his retirement, producing vibrant landscapes that looked like photographs.

Artist Ray Higuchi,
newspaper veteran,
dies at 82

He was art director at the
Star-Bulletin and designed its masthead

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By Pat Gee
pgee@starbulletin.com

Raymond Kazuto Higuchi, who designed the Honolulu Star-Bulletin masthead, died Tuesday at Kaiser Medical Center of complications from surgery. He was 82.

He was the art director of the Star-Bulletin for 40 years.

His daughter, Audrey Higuchi, painted a picture of a devoted family man, and his former colleagues rounded out the portrait of Higuchi as a multitalented professional.

He started at the Star-Bulletin in 1946 in the commercial printing division, then became art director in 1948 until his retirement in 1988. He then devoted himself to his favorite pastime, oil painting, turning out vibrant depictions of land and seascapes, so accurately rendered that they look like photographs.

Corky Trinidad, the newspaper's veteran cartoonist, shared the art room with Higuchi for many years.

Higuchi "took me under his wing" when Trinidad first arrived and "taught me a lot of things. At the time, he was a one-man graphics department," he said.

"He was of the old school of artists, a craftsman who did everything by hand with none of the newfangled technology. If you needed a great portrait, he did it; if you needed a caricature, he did it. He could do anything -- and fast!"

Audrey Higuchi said her father once expressed delight that the masthead on the front page he designed long ago was still being used after he retired.

Since his death, she has discovered "how many people's lives he touched with his paintings."

He sold dozens of them, for about $2,000 apiece, and gave dozens more away to friends and family.

Once he turned down an offer from an art gallery to buy one of his paintings for $14,000, she said.

"He didn't want to do it commercially. He wanted it to be more personal. He wanted to know the person who was buying his work. He was not in it for the money, more for love and the expression of his talent, and he wanted to share it," she said.

Her father valued his family so much, he was "adamant in insisting that we all sit down together for dinner, that we spend quality time with each other" every day, according to his daughter.

The death of his wife, Ethel, his "soulmate" of almost 55 years last June, was "his biggest heartbreak," she said.

"He was so heartbroken. They were like lovebirds, always having to be together. It was so romantic, so touching, the way they showed love for each other and for us."

Former Republican State Sen. Wadsworth Yee became fast friends with Higuchi when they both attended Wailuku Elementary School. They remained close throughout their lives, said Yee.

Yee, who has about 12 of Higuchi's paintings, said that as a boy, Higuchi had to limit his physical activity because of rheumatic fever, which affected his heart, but was heavily involved in student affairs.

"He had an excellent disposition, very friendly, very good student. From (Wailuku) intermediate school days, he always wanted to be an artist. He was a great artist," Yee said.

According to Audrey Higuchi, her father graduated as valedictorian of his Baldwin High class in 1939 and was the only one among six siblings who went to college.

Higuchi attended UH on an art scholarship and served as editor of the UH yearbook, graduating in 1946.

Bill Kwon, former Star-Bulletin sports editor and columnist, said, "He was such a gentle person, quiet, always just did his work; never flashy, always dependable."

Higuchi also is survived by sons Blake T. and Forde F., daughter Claudia N. Furumoto, mother Hatsuyo, brother Kenneth, sister Janet Murakami and three grandchildren.

Services were private. Arrangements were made by Hosoi Garden Mortuary.