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. 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.

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.

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.