FAMILY PLACED OBITUARY

Albert Alapaki Matthews
ALBERT ALAPAKI MATTHEWS Dad passed away one year ago on Valentine's Day, 2012 in San Diego, California where he lived for the last 35 years of his life. He was born in Honolulu on December 17 to Edith R. Mueller, but was raised for the most part in Nanakuli by his great-aunt, Alice C. Reid, the principal at Nanaikapono Elementary School. When he was a teenager, his mother married Gabriel Ah Loy Akana, our beloved grandpa. Dad graduated from University High School and went on to receive a degree in Hotel and Restaurant Management from City College of San Francisco and a Business Management degree from the University of Hawaii. In 1959, he married the love of his life, Eunice A. Hiapo, and began a family that eventually included five children. He managed restaurants for the Spencecliff Corporation and worked as a night auditor at the Kaiser Hawaiian Village before joining the Honolulu Police Department in 1960. While on the force, he walked the beat in Waikiki, drove a motorcycle with a sidecar (which fascinated his children), patrolled in an unmarked vehicle with a blue light he slapped on the roof when needed (which also fascinated his children), trained JPO's at schools around the island (his most favorite job assignment), and worked in the licensing department. In 1968, he changed careers, becoming Patient's Credit Manager at Castle Memorial Hospital. In 1973, our family moved to the Big Island, where he became the administrator of the Hilo Care Center. In 1976, he took his family on the adventure of a lifetime - a year-long trip in a motorhome around the mainland - before settling down in San Diego where he worked at Paradise Valley Hospital until retirement. While growing up and living in Hawaii, Dad's life was touched by so many people whose names we don't know, but Dad knew, and he never ever forgot you. Mahalo to the families that shared their dinner table with a hungry little boy, to the teachers and camp counselors that took an interest in him, to his high school friends whom he dearly loved (Alan Masagatani, especially), to his Seventh-day Adventist church family in Kaimuki, Waipahu, Waimanalo, and Hilo; to his fellow officers that backed him up and saved his bacon at times, to his good friends at Castle, to the dedicated workers that helped him open the Care Center, and to all the others that made Hawaii home for him. God bless you all. Contact Al's family: http://www.hiapoohana.com/contact-us.php

Our deepest condolences to the family and friends of the deceased

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