Riley Allen, who served as editor of the Honolulu Star-Bulletin from 1912 to 1960, was one of the organizers of the 1941 awards dinner featured here on Sunday. ![[text]](http://ilind.net/oldkine_images/jaycees-jan-22-1941-s.jpg)
My dad’s dementia may have wiped out a lot of things and left him wondering where he is, but he recognized Allen immediately when I showed him the photo this week.
I stopped at his nursing home on Monday afternoon to see if he could remember the event or recognize anyone in the photo.
At first it seemed that the trip would be a bust.
When I arrived in his room, and before I showed him the photo, he was awake but disoriented.
He said hello, then looked down at himself, and then up at the room. He asked several times, looking at me but obviously aiming the question at himself: “Why am I in bed?”
He spoke slowly, shutting his eyes to concentrate on finding the answers.
“How did I get here?”
Then, looking at me: “How long have I been here?”
I treated it lightly. “I guess you were just taking a nap!”
It wasn’t really an answer, but it moved him beyond his inability to recall how or why he was in bed at 4:30 on a sunny afternoon.
And memory, it seems, is an amazing thing. He then surprised me. The mental fog suddenly lifted and he was able to add details to the photo of that long ago event.
He quickly identified the man at the head of the table as Honolulu Star-Bulletin publisher Riley Allen, front and center in the light-colored suit. He is on the right in the enlargement below.
![[text]](http://ilind.net/oldkine_images/riley-allen-1941.jpg)
Seated next to him, according to my dad’s recollection, is Alan (Al) Watkins, the Junior Chamber president at the time. He recalls that Watkins was in real estate.
I then pointed to where he was sitting in the photo. He peered at it, but I’m sure he couldn’t make out the faces in the photo. He joked about needing a magnifying glass. Surprisingly, though, he recalled sitting with Peter Canlis, who ran the Armed Services YMCA’s food service during WWII and was later a prominent Waikiki restauranteur.
![[text]](http://ilind.net/oldkine_images/lind-canlis.jpg)
So I enlarged this second section of the photo. My dad is on the far side of the table, second from the left. And across the table is Peter Canlis. He’s the third person from the far right (second visible face from the right), his left hand extending towards the camera behind the back of the man next to him.
Both Canlis and my dad look like they were having a good time.
So my dad’s memory of the event was sharp, at least on this score.
Using my iPhone as a video camera, I captured two minutes of his reaction to the photo. At just a few months short of 97, he looks and sounds remarkably well.
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Dear Mr. Lind,
My name is Gary Nakata, 60th president of the Hawaii Jaycees (Junior Chamber).
Thank you for posting a picture of Alan Watkins, or R. Allen Watkins as all Hawaii Jaycees know him. Mr. Watkins is a legend. The award for most outstanding chapter president is named after him.
Thank you for posting all of your father’s Junior Chamber pictures. They serve as inspiration of a bygone time when social service helped many young leaders emerge to be the shakers and movers of society.
Please let your father know that indeed “service to humanity is the best work of life!”
From one Jaycee to another.
Aloha, Gary
Aloha Ian,
As the 65th President (2008) of the Hawaii Jaycees, I echo Gary Nakata’s expression of appreciation to you for sharing the photo, your research, and the first-hand recollections of your father.
R. Allen Watkins went on to help form the statewide umbrella Hawaii Junior Chamber of Commerce (today a.k.a. Hawaii Jaycees), comprised of the Honolulu, Wahiawa, Hilo, and Maui chapters. He served as our first State President. Many of the photographic records of that era have been lost in the sands of time, and a photo like the one you found and posted is a treasure for the ages.
Mahalo and Aloha,
Patrick Tomiyasu
Thank you for posting! Echoing sentiments of the 61st and 65th Hawaii Jaycee State Presidents
Stan Fichtman
67th President
Hawaii Jaycees
Aloha Mr. Lind:
This post of your is especially moving. In my throat, a lump blocking the words that truly express what it meant to me to read of your gesture of bringing memory and life to your aging father in his care home bed.
It is certainly a unique photo that you chose this time to share. One that I, like the previous writers, gaze upon with honor and respect. Your father and these men that your father kept company with, are fine gentlemen indeed having believed and weaved for us today the beautiful fabric that is Hawaii Jaycees.
Thank you so much for sharing. You do write a wonderful blog.
With Jaycee Aloha,
Yvette Lee
68th State President
Hawaii Jaycees (2011)
Mr Lind, first I would like to say your blog on your fathers life is wonderful. My famley lived in Hawaii from 1963 to 1967. My father was stationed at Schofield Barracks during this time frame his name was Maj. Robert E Thurber. He could never discuss his duties there or he would have to kill us. This reference his type of work. I understand your father might of been freinds with Manuel A. Alzate. My mother worked at a thrift store while we were there. Both my mother and father just passed away and I came across some information your parents and mine might have known each other along with Riley Allen. Just doing researched of past. I pray your father is doing well, My father had dementia too.
Best regards,
Al Thurber
Riley Allen was quite a hero. During WWI, he was asked to be the director of the Red Cross in Vladivostok when the Americans went in to the Far East. My grandmother was a Russian citizen and worked for the Red Cross. She was able to leave Russia on one of the last American ships leaving the port, and Riley Allen was kind enough to have my grandmother stay at his mother’s home in Seattle.
Riley Allen was also famous for rescuing several hundred orphans from Vladivostok and bringing them across the Pacific Ocean, through the Panama Canal, up the east coast to the U.S. and eventually to Finland. Otherwise, they may have died of starvation or been shot by the Bolsheviks.
I too thank you for posting this photo as Riley Allen was my great uncle. His efforts with the Red Cross in rescuing the children caught behind the lines during WWI and organizing their return via the US is an amazing saga. It was well caught in the book Wild Children of the Urals written many years ago and I believe out of print now.