THE GREED SHOW or WHO WANTS TO BE A MILLIONAIRE? KS/BE STYLE (Thoughts of a Kanaka Maoli Kupuna)



(c) Copyright February 27, 2002 by Kenneth R. Conklin, Ph.D., on behalf of author, a friend of mine who asked me to post it anonymously on my website which I did on that date. Copyright again on July 14, 2019 by Kenneth R. Conklin on behalf of the true author, the late Lehman Lloyd Lanakila “Bud” Henry, whose family-placed obituary was published in the Honolulu Star-Advertiser on Sunday July 14, 2019 on page B6 at
https://obits.staradvertiser.com/2019/07/14/lehman-lloyd-lanakila-bud-henry/
All rights reserved
The obituary is copied in full at the bottom of this webpage.

The following was sent to me by a kanaka maoli kupuna friend of mine, who has asked to remain anonymous. If anyone would like to ask questions or make comments on this material, Ken Conklin promises to forward them to the writer who may then choose to reply or not to reply. My friend signed the essay in the following way: "[Name withheld for obvious reasons. Facts remain fact and support bias judgment. The writer is not ready to have his iwi picked over in grand Hawaiian-style.]"


==================================

KS/BE vs GREED!

The Kamehameha Schools/Bernice Pauahi Bishop Estate (KS/BE) has been hosting a GREED! Show of sorts, or to bring it up to date, "Who Wants to be a millionaire?" for over forty years. This is to document how the Trustees, as players, and "caretakers" (konohiki?) of the estate have prevailed over those years. "Though long dead," as the Honolulu Magazine Islander of ther Year in 1998, "Charles Reed Bishop's (CRB) role in writing the will of his wife, Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop, laid the foundation for Kamehameha Schools Bishop Estate -- even if it didn't prevent the $1 million-a-year trustees from self-destructing in 1997. Now the trust Bishop helped create calls itself simply "Kamehameha Schools."

------------------------------

THE TRUST BEGINS

Local author/researcher/historian Bob Dye, in the Forward of the January 1998 issue of Honolulu Magazine, writes, "The property that went into Bishop Estate belonged to Hawaiian Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop. But the man who really created Bishop Estate in his own image was her haole husband, Charles Reed Bishop .... "Conflict of interest, insider dealing, political influence, educational micro-management -- all these were part of Bishop Estate from the beginning. It was Princess Pauahi Bishop's legacy, but the man who shaped Bishop Estate -- and sowed the seeds of all its curent controvercies -- was Charles Reed Bishop: The Man Pauahi Trusted".

Pauahi's businessman banker husband, Charles Reed Bishop, was named one the five Trustees of her Estate. She was 18 and Charles was 28 when they wed in 1850. Their marriage was opposed by her parents, Abner Paki and Kanaholo Konia. The other four trustees named were Samuel M. Damon, Charles M. Hyde, Charles M. Cooke and William O. Smith. Pauahi's will was compled in 1883 and two codicils were added before her painful death of cancer in 1884 at the age of 52.

Dye writes, "As the sad news of Pauahu's death spread through Honolulu, flags were lowered to half-mast, shops and schools were closed and courts recessed in memory of the last of the Kamehamehas. The royal lands -- one ninth of all land in the islands -- passed now from an ali'i nui to five haole trustees."

------------------------------

THE SHOW BEGINS

The GREED! SHOW begins in March 1959. Hawaii Kai is born. The Bishop Estate Trustees and Industrialist Henry J. Kaiser announced that a "resort-residential" community of 50,000 was being planned for 6,000 acres of Bishop Estate land on Oahu's east end. It would also include other undeveloped lands of the Koko Head area, extending from the shores of Maunalua Bay to Makapuu Point. With a present population of about 40,000, development continues as it has for the past forty years to reach its goal at a growth rate of about 10,000 people every ten-years.

----------------------------

THE KAISER PLAN

The KS/BE Hawaii Kai Development Plan provided for family and townhouse units, condos, resort hotels, shopping centers, schools, a marina with boating and water sports facilities and other inter- structure necessary for a modern community. Lease agreements were to follow established Bishop Estate policies which were for thirty to fifty years on residential and fifty years on commercial properties. As families moved into the area, Bishop Estate and Kaiser began to receive the lease payments. "Reasonable" lease rents began to fill the Estate's coffers.

In the 60's the Trustees of the Estate were Frank K. Midkiff (President), Edwin P. Murray, Atherton Richards, Richard "Papa" Lyman, and Herbert K. Keppler. These guys basically found a way to develop Bernice Pauahi Bishop's land the missionary way. Stated in her will, appointment of the Bishop Estate Trustees was to be made by the Hawaii State Supreme Court. The Governor was Democrat John A. Burns. Hung Wo Ching, a "financial wizard," came on board in 1968 and left in 1982.

-----------------------------------

THE JACKPOT

In the mid-1970's the Bishop Estate leasehold policy was challenged by the State of Hawaii, and, to make a long story short, through Hawaii's Supreme Court, a ruling was made that leased land could now be acquired in "fee simple" by the lease holders. The people had hit the jackpot so it seemed; a gain for the leaseholders who could now be land owners and a loss of some Bishop Estate land ownership ... good/bad? The make up of the Trustees had changed somewhat. They were now Midkiff, Richards, Lyman, Hung Wo Ching and Matsuo "Massy" Takabuki, a controversial appointment, but another "financial wizard" like Hung Wo Ching. Richards was replaced by Myron "Pinky" Thompson, a former State Director of Social Services. The Governor was Democrat George Arioyshi.

----------------------------------------

PLAYING HARDBALL

In the 1980s, the Bishop Estate put high values on their lease-to-fee properties. The change in the law also applied to all of the other large landed Estates (Campbell, Robinson, etc.) without any hoopla. The Bishop Estate hired a "hard ass, no scruples," Real Estate Broker (Savio) to "negotiate" with individuals or groups on a "take-it-or-leave-it" basis. Unbeknownst to most, at that time, the Bishop Estate Trustees also wore Real Estate Broker hats. As such, as the hired principal broker was "raking it in" his cut, the Trustees were also "raking in" their portion of the take as Real Estate Broker fees for themselves. A 1986 photo shows the composition of the Trustees as Papa Lyman (President), William Richardson; the former Chief Justice of the Hawaii State Supreme Court, the body that selected Bishop Estate Trustees (1st Vice-President), Henry H. Peters; the Speaker of the Hawaiii State House of Representatives appointed by Democrat Hawaiian Governor John Waihee (2nd Vice-President), Pinky Thompson (Secretary) and Massy Takabuki (Treasurer).

--------------------------------------

THE PEAK PAY-OFF

During the peak lease-to-fee conversion years of the 1980's and 1990's, broker fees to the five Trustees were moving upward towards five million dollars per year (divided among themselves). In 1991 the Trustees were Richardson (Chairman), Peters (1st Vice-Chairman, who still kept his seat at the Hawaii House of Representatives), Oswald K. Stender; newly appointed former CEO of the Campbell Estate (2nd Vice-Chairman), Thompson (Secretary) and Takabuki (Treasurer).

-------------------------------------

GLITCH IN THE SYSTEM

Here's the tricky part. According to Mrs. Bishop's seemingly steadfast Will created by her husband, Charles Reed Bishop, and other influential lawyers of the time, the members of the Hawaii Supreme Court were forever to appoint the Trustees of her Estate. After over a 100 years, the sitting members of the Hawaii Supreme Court opted out of that duty -- they weren't going to do that any more. In essense, by not honoring the wishes of Pauahi's Will, they "broke" one of the main pillars of her legacy that had stood the test of time. Simply stated, "They broke her Will." It ended up where the Chief Justice of the Hawaii Supreme Court took on the one-person job of appointing the Bishop Estate Trustees. This is Hawaii's Democratic political power in action.

----------------------------------------------

NEW KOKO

The last generation of Bishop Estate Trustees were basically Richard "Dickie" Wong (former President of the Hawai=8Ci State Senate and another Waihee appointee); Peters, Stender, Marion Mae Lokilani Lindsey (former Maui County School District Superintendent who turned out to be "the weakest link") and Gerard A. Jervis (an insider-lawyer and member of the Hawaii State Judicial Selection Commission that selected Trustee candidates).

-----------------------------------------

GENERATION GAP

The last generation of Trustees, Papa Lyman would probably call them, "da poor buggas," took the fall for a myriad number of wrong-doings at the Bishop Estate over the years that led to their ouster from what became very lucrative positions up to $1,000,000 each. This did not bode will with the people. This did not seem pono. "Enough, was enough," was the loud cry of the Kamehameha Ohana as they marched against the da buggas! The full story can be traced back to those who nurtured their demise during those lease-to-fee windfall years that started at least three Bishop Estate Trustee-Generations ago.

----------------------------------

BROKEN TRUST VS. GREEDY TRUSTEES

The spotlight of the latest "Broken Trust" era that caused the fatal ending (1999-2000), overshadowed the less lighted, but "silent and effective," Arioyshi and Waihee years of the truely "Greedy Trustees" prior to that time. The wheeling and dealing during those formative years should be looked at in light of what happened to the "fall guys" (mentioned again for emphasis).

-----------------------------------------

BOTTOM LINE

The Trustees of The Kamehameha Schools/Bernice Pauahi Bishop Estate thought they were Alii. They did not honor the fact that they worked for "Ke Alii Pauahi" and that they were only the "pseudo-konohiki" of her holdings. During their GREED! Show they were "sharks that walked upon the [her] land" that just wanted to be millionaires. That's the final answer.

Pseudo Aloha - I mua Kamehameha!
Mayday 2001


================================

** Family-placed obituary published in Honolulu Star-Advertiser on Sunday, July 14, 2019 on page B6 (it was accompanied by a fairly recent photo of him, along with the U.S. flag shown in all obituaries of U.S. military veterans):
https://obits.staradvertiser.com/2019/07/14/lehman-lloyd-lanakila-bud-henry/


Lehman Lloyd Lanakila "Bud" Henry

Lehman Lloyd Lanakila 89, of Kaneohe passed away June 4, 2019. He was born on March 26, 1930 in Hilo and attended the Kamehameha School for Boys (KSB'47). He served in the U.S. Air Force where he was commissioned as a 2nd Lt as a Navigator assigned to the Strategic Air Command's 308th Air Refueling Squadron at Hunter AFB. When he left the Air Force he returned to Hawaii to attend the University of Hawaii where he received his Masters Degree in Geography. His thesis was a 16mm movie (a first at the time for UH) and text that documented the area in East Oahu that is now known as Hawaii Kai. He was also on the UH geography team that created the first map of the State of Hawaii in 1959.

In 1961, he became a Geographic Intelligence Officer with the U.S. Army Map Service, working out of Tokyo. He then worked for the Bureau of Indian Affairs as the Economic Development Officer for the Ute Indian Tribe at Ft. Duchesne, UT. In 1968 he returned to Hawaii to work as an Operations Research Analyst for the Commander-in-Chief, Pacific (USCINCPAC). In 1976, he was selected as the Outstanding Non-supervisory Federal Employee of the Year. He retired from the U.S. Federal Government in 1990.

A Kaneohe resident for many years, Bud was active in researching, documenting and preserving the ecology and culture of the area where he lived. He was a charter member of the Kaneohe Neighborhood Board and a founding member of The Friends of Heeia State Park and served as the Chairperson of the Board of Directors for over 10 years. Intent on the preservation of ancient Hawaiian fishponds, his book on the subject, with focus on Heeia Fishpond, was published in 1993. In 1998, he was presented the Historic Preservation Honor Award by the Historic Hawaii Foundation. In 2001, Bud received a City and County of Honolulu Outstanding Senior Citizen Award for his work with Friends of Heeia State Park, and in 2002 he was inducted into the University of Hawaii and UH Alumni Association Golden Scholar Society.

Bud's interest in travel took him all over the world. Places that had specific impact are Rapa Nui, Vietnam, Tibet, Indonesia, Laos and the Pacific Nations he visited - Tuvalu, Samoa, Fiji, the Cook Islands, French Polynesia, and the Tuamotus and Marquesas Islands.

Bud is predeceased by wife Anita S. (High) Henry. He is survived by daughters Lisa Henry-Hamilton (George) and Lee Henry-Chang (Brad); grandchildren Laura Chang, Christopher Hamilton, Hiilani Chang, Faith Hamilton; and brother Leslie M. Henry. Inurnment at National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific. Private Services Held.

Arrangements Provided By: Hawaiian Memorial Park Mortuary


================================

You may now

SEE MORE INFORMATION ABOUT KAMEHAMEHA SCHOOL

or

GO BACK TO OTHER TOPICS ON THIS WEBSITE

Email: ken_conklin@yahoo.com