CYRIL GABBY REIS GOMES / 1922-2004

Former HPD officer and
WWII vet was inventor

Retired police officer Cyril Gabby Reis Gomes was a "man before his time" as an inventor, professional musician and just "a great daddy," says his daughter, Sheila Gomes.

The Kapahulu resident died Monday at Leahi Hospital. He was 82.

As examples of his multiple talents, Gomes was featured in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin for inventing a flashlight-pen as a police officer in 1949, and in 1939 for carving a ventriloquist dummy with movements much like Edgar Bergen's Charlie McCarthy, featured on stage, radio, television and movies from the 1920s to the 1970s, Sheila Gomes said.

Her father decided to invent a flashlight-pen after almost losing a suspect in Aala Park while writing a police report in the dark. His invention was a pen with a light in its nose for people who had to write in the dark, she said. He worked on it for nine years and received a patent, but a Japanese company developed and marketed a similar product before he was able to garner financial backing to manufacture it himself.

Sheila Gomes said her father was "so far ahead of his time -- he could visualize things and create them," such as installing a wireless microphone at his church before it became common years later.

Making the ventriloquist dummy, which he nicknamed "Gabby," was an outgrowth of his first loves: music and entertainment. The McKinley High School drum major and cheerleader later became an accomplished ventriloquist, comedian and singer while serving in the Army during World War II.

Gomes joined the Kalima Brothers Orchestra at the Seaside Gardens in Waikiki in the 1940s as an entertainment coordinator and performer, and later led his own band, called the Seaside Boys, as a side job while he was a police officer.

Gomes founded Honolulu Police Retirees Inc. and remained its chief executive officer until the organization disbanded in 1998. He spent 23 years on the police force, retiring in 1971 as staff sergeant. He was also a longtime volunteer with the Civil Air Patrol, among other organizations.

Gomes' close relationship with his family and two sisters made him "a very special person to all of us," Sheila Gomes said. His wife of 54 years, Lorraine, died last year.

Gomes is survived by his children, including Glenn K. Gomes and Maureen I. Yuen; sisters Ramona Cordeiro and Willene Wailani Bell; eight grandchildren; and one great-grandchild.

Services will be held Tuesday at St. Patrick Church in Kaimuki at 9 a.m. Burial will follow at the Hawaii State Veterans Cemetery. The family requests aloha attire and no flowers.