How we met
In the late 60s or early 70s, I saw a handmade poster at a local camera store regarding a meeting that would be held at Kaimuki Library within a few days. I called the number on the poster and introduced myself.
The reason I called was due to Doug Fiske. He wrote me and asked about the status of Save Our Surf (SOS). Surfers on the mainland were curious to know what it was and whether they could work with them on the mainland.
John Kelly picked up the phone when I called. He and I talked for awhile. He was working as an assistant editor of a local construction company at the time. He invited me to come to his house to come to his house for a meeting of SOS leaders.
I went there the next day and was amazed to see all these teenage kids running around his house, talking about raising money to buy paper and ink for his printing press. John would raise money via colored leaflets that he printed at his house.
Tommy Mountain was a key player at that time (Punahou grad), he was kind of a crazy guy. He lived in a treehouse in Manoa.The night that I went, they were printing a leaflet, several pages long, that visitors were asked to collate while they were there.
John was just a marvel. He had so much knowledge about things related to the ocean. i could n’t get over about how much he knew. He’d share with me his stories, the naming of his children, fish, etc.
I felt like he was a substitute father to me. My dad was on the mainland and was sort of unavailable. John sort of took his place, in my mind, as a mentor. The relationship with John and I grew because he had a printing press in his garage. I worked with him down there, which I also marveled at.
The construction companies had put forward a plan to build a tunnel and store water in it.John sent me to Kauai, he arranged for me to stay with Stanford Achi. They lived within walking distance of Wailua River. John wanted me to document a land use study for the area that the Land Use Commission gave a deadline for a development they (SOS) opposed. There was a company based in Florida that wanted to develop something on Kauai, they were trying to change the zoning from the LUC. John needed pictures, it ended up being a 12 page, comprehensive land use study.They later held a Land Use Commission hearing on Kauai that I wasn’t able to attend. Mr. Otzo was a retired Filipino worker who lived on a plantation. He was against the development. At the hearing, Mr. Otzo stood up, walked to the podium, and said something to the effect, “how easy it would be to speak up against this plan.” He then pulled out a cane sword and pointed at the developers and said, “you come to Kauai to do this development, and I cut.” The whole room applauded.Hoala <> John
“Somewhere along the line, I gave him your number, to teach you how to get the most out of the ocean.” Dad to HGJohn’s last job as an employee was as an editor of the Palama Settlement newspaper.The last time I saw John was at his Black Point house. He had a stack of jigsaw puzzles, he was putting them together, even though he’d put them together before. He wanted me to join him in figuring out the jigsaw puzzles. All I could think about was that his mental acuity had declined.He had 2 daughters. Colleen Kelly lived at the house. Kathleen, the younger daughter, lived nearby.John understood the value of photography. he used to camera, a Nikon, around his neck. When I came along in the early 70s and gave him an alternative that I could take the pictures and furnish him with black and whites, I didn’t get reimbursed for black and white photos. That’s how he accumulated a large collection of my pictures to use in various studies and pamphlets. That’s how I knew him.
Do you miss Uncle John?
Yes. Cause Marion’s gone too, she also had dementia. Kathleen died of cancer. Colleen is still alive, afaik. She developed a relationship with another woman. Afaik, they are still together.I remember one time, near the Black Point house, all of a sudden there was white algae growing on the rocks in the shoreline. John called me, he didn’t understand where it came from. He asked me to photograph it. I don’t remember a resolution to it, as it was towards the end of his career.Then there was swimming around Black PointBefore SOS, he made surfboards out of his garage. They were really radical designs. I don’t see them around anymore, I’m sure how successful they were.In certain conditions, the waves at Black Point were superior to the neighboring waves. He kept a journal, where he documented surf heights and conditions at Black Point going back years.John was always worried about the deterioration of his house, as it was near the ocean. He had a lot of friends and enemies. He wasn’t afraid to speak out on topics. He taught me things like, “Never go to see a govt agency by yourself. Don’t try to over power them with your logic. Go to them with a small group of educated people on the topic, you can assert your position to the media. If you’re straight with them, they’ll often print what you say, sometimes verbatim.” That worked very well.
Ed Greevy
Honolulu, HI
