STAR-BULLETIN FILE
Arnold Okamura points to a seismograph recording tremors at the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory
Big Isle veteran
geologist retiresArnold Okamura is the volcano
observatory's longest-serving staffer
HILO >> Tomorrow will mark the retirement from the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory of Arnold Okamura, with more than 39 years of service at the facility -- the longest-serving staff member since the observatory was founded in 1912.
Okamura spent an additional three years, 1975-78, at the Menlo Park, Calif., facility of the U.S. Geological Survey, the observatory's parent agency.
Okamura, 63, has been deputy scientist-in-charge at the observatory since 1992, when he replaced his brother Reggie.
Whether retirement means he'll be leaving the facility is open to question. He was still at work after 5 p.m. on New Year's Eve.
"I'll be in next week, even though they're not paying me," he said.
Okamura didn't set out to be a geologist. He studied zoology, a first step to becoming a doctor. "I just didn't have the money," he said.
He turned down an offer of work at the state Department of Agriculture to join the observatory in 1961.
"Ag's loss was our gain," said Scientist-in-Charge Don Swanson.
Okamura was in the right place at the right time many times.
Within a month of his joining the observatory, 600-foot-high lava fountains broke out at Kilauea.
A National Guardsman, Okamura earned a Bronze Star in Vietnam in 1969. He returned to the observatory to work on seismology (earthquakes) and ground deformation (measurements).
"I don't look at rocks. I measure the earth," he said.
Okamura was at Mount St. Helens in Washington when it blew up in 1980. He went to Colombia in 1986 in the aftermath of the eruption and mudslide at Nevado Del Ruiz that killed 23,000 people.
Colombian guerrillas were threatening to kidnap Americans then. The U.S. State Department warned Okamura and others that if they were kidnapped, they would not be rescued. But American officials did provide an armored car and armed guards.
Besides Mount St. Helens, Okamura said the most exciting event in his career was the three-week eruption of Mauna Loa in 1984. He worked every day as a geologist, then flew in a helicopter every night as a Civil Defense observer.
Okamura's wife, Pat, is a librarian at the University of Hawaii at Hilo.
His daughter Tricia teaches Greek at East Carolina University, and his son Charles will complete his medical degree in 2004.
Okamura will be replaced by Steve Brantley, who has worked at the observatory for seven years.
Besides Okamura's retirement, Scientist-in-Charge Swanson noted other milestones in the Geological Survey are the retirement of Bob Tilling on Sunday and the death Dec. 12 of Don Peterson, both former scientists-in-charge.
