We received the sad news Thursday night that Alice Beechert, a very old friend in both senses of the phrase, had passed away at home earlier in the evening. Robin, one of her daughters, let us know.
Since the death of her husband, UH labor historian and professor emeritus Ed Beechert, in 2014, she had been living with Robin in Oregon.
Robin texted the news, with a bitter-sweet ending.
“I wanted you both to know that my mom passed away in her sleep this evening. We had just signed up for hospice care today and she passed about 5 hrs later. She was at peace with the hospice choice and the intake nurse was surprised that she hadn’t passed weeks ago….. I know you both were such good friends to my family and she loved the times you came to visit in the last few years. We had just this afternoon looked at our 2022 calendars that arrived today. She was awake for a couple of hours this afternoon and had a fun time looking through both.”
We met Alice and Ed soon after arriving to enter graduate school at UH in 1969. They were a generation older, Ed already established as a historian and professor, and Alice working as staff for a long-term research project. Ed hired me as a teaching assistant for his class in the Ethnic Studies program, and Meda worked with Alice while doing her Ph.D. research. We all became good friends. When Ed retired, they moved to the mainland to be closer to their three children, and grandchildren. We visited them first in Monterey, California, then in Vancouver, Washington, where they became deeply involved digging into the history of Hawaiians at the Fort Vancouver National Historic Site. Ed and Alice authored a series of 8 short articles exploring the Hawaiian history of Fort Vancouver for the National Park Service.
In the past few years, we’ve managed to see Alice and Robin on several visits to Portland, either driving down to their home or welcoming spending the day when they drove up to the city.
A quick search turned up a few nice photos. The first was taken at a picnic up on Aiea Heights sometime in the mid-1970s, as I recall. The second might have been the last time we drove down from Portland to visit Alice, in October 2019. And then I found another of Alice and Ed at that same 1970s picnic.
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Sorry for your loss Ian and Meda. Alice and Ed sound like such outstanding people who led fascinating lives….
RIP Alice Beechert
Alice was a very dear friend of mine in Albany during the years she lived with her daughter Robin. I loved Alice so much for her Independent and intelligent personality. Right up until the end she was sharp and bright. I will always remember how she loved the ocean, the beaches, butterflies and flowers and birds. She especially loved the red roses in Robin’s back yard. She missed her husband Ed so much, and also her beloved sister and traveling companion. Alice told me hundreds of great Hawaii and California University adventures. She had 3 children that she loved with all her heart and She adored her two grand daughters also. Alice was a fun poker player, she was a fun conversationalist, and she was interested in everything going on in the entire world. I will always miss Alice and my world is an emptier place without her. She contributed to the world in a great way and that’s the best any of us can ever do in our lifetime. Salute Alice my Friend !
Thank you so much for sharing.
I thank chana mcdee for writing that vivid sketch of Alice. And that photo of Meda and Alice is a nice one.
Thanks, Ian, for sharing the news and your reflections. Melinda and I knew Ed and Alice here in Hawaii – often were together in anti-Vietnam war protests and the like.
Ben