I found this fragment of a letter from the legendary paddler and surfer, Tom Zahn, among my dad’s papers. It’s the final page of a longer letter. I believe it was addressed to my dad, then president of the Waikiki Surf Club.
![[text]](http://ilind.net/oldkine_images/zahn-letter.jpg)
Zahn mentions in the letter that he was 26 years old at the time, which would have been in 1950 (Zahn was born in 1924).
In the letter, Zahn mentions surfing great Tom Blake, who was Zahn’s mentor, along with surf figures like Joe Quigg (“constructed about 50 surfboards this summer”), and Gene Smith.
Zahn, a Marine veteran, also talks about his draft status (the draft had been reinstated in 1948).
“Please don’t think me yellow, but I feel one war is enough,” Zahn writes about his efforts to avoid a draft call by lining up a defense job.
Zahn moved to Hawaii in 1953, and in October of that year paddled the Molokai Channel during Aloha Week’s Molokai-Oahu canoe race. He finished the successful solo crossing of the channel in 9 hours and 20 minutes.
Discover more from i L i n d
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Gene Smith lived on Paoakalani Ave. Waikiki. (Zahn misspelled it) In an apt building now long gone. Unless he lived at 207 Paoakalani or the old building mauka of that, the only two older structures on the street. They are just mauka of Kuhio. Everything else on that street new redevelopments. sad.
Aloha! I know one of Zahn’s ex wives. Her name is Marian. She is still alive and living in Honolulu, but very old and cannot get around much anymore. She rarely talks about Zahn, only to say they were in Europe once and he left her there. She was stuck and had to wait until her parents could wire her money to get back to Hawaii. I guess it was a short marriage.
Marian Furtado Zahn, who was married to Tommy Zahn 1958 to 1966 is my cousin. She is still alive and well in Honolulu. Just moved to a senior home, but gets about pretty good. Still does the hula and plays the ukulele. Her assessment of Tommy was concise: He was so handsome and a great lover. In the end he treated her poorly. He contacted her just before he passed in 1991 and wanted her forgiveness. She was not in the mood, but today is sorry she answered him so roughly.
Marian shared hundreds of photos with me when I visited her last year … including a whole bunch of her and Tommy.
BTW: Marian was quite the looker back in her youth and frankly is still a good looker at 88 years old. ALSO, her father Louis Furtado was a WW2 hero on Guam during the Japanese occupation of the island.
Hi. This is so interesting. Tom was my dad’s only first cousin. He taught me how to dive waves once as a kid during one of our visits to California. He was married to Dagmar by then. He was a lovely man although fairly reclusive as several of the Zahns were. Having only a handful of relatives, I’m fascinated to hear stories about their lives.
I have a lot about Tommy & Marian on my Ancestry.com tree. Don’t know if this will work but here is the gallery URL: https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/person/tree/38057837/person/28130456434/gallery
I am a Roosevelt High School graduate class of 1948 and was a classmate of Marian Furtado Zahn. Spoke to her last year while she was at a Nursing home. When I tried to reach her today to check on her she was no longer there. Any idea if she has passed away?
Not last I checked. I’ll followup. Bob
I just got this response from her niece: Aunty Pumpkin passed away January 14, 2021. The family believes it was from the Pfizer vaccine. She ended up with breathing complications less than 24 hours after her first shot and went on hospice and died a few days later. Sorry for the bad news.
RIP Cousin