GOING POSTAL

Hawaiian Surfing Legend Honored on New Stamp

New postage stamp bearing the likeness of Olympic swimmer and surfing pioneer Duke Paoa Kahanamoku. Photo by The Associated Press.

The ceremony on the 112th anniversary of his birth capped a nearly 20-year effort by family and friends to honor one of Hawai‘i’s most famous citizens with a commemorative stamp.

The official unveiling and dedication took place amid chants and the sounding of conch shells at Duke Kahanamoku Beach at the Hilton Hawaiian Village on the shores of Kalia Bay, where Kahanamoku grew up.

“What a great day it is,” Sen. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawai‘i, told the gathering. “And it’s a day when we can look out towards the sea and say ‘Aloha, Duke. We’re back here again with your stamp.’ ”

An enlarged image of the stamp was carried ashore from the voyaging canoe Hawai‘i Loa, which was accompanied by the canoe Makali‘i and a flotilla of surfers.

“The Duke Kahanamoku stamp reminds us of the lasting, positive influence a talented individual and relatively unknown hero can have on our culture,” said Robert Rider, chairman of the Postal Service Board of Governors, who presided over the dedication.

Following the dedication was a Waterman Challenge, One-Mile Ocean Swim and luau.

On Friday, friends and family members placed 112 leis on the Duke Kahanamoku statue at Kuhio Beach in Waikiki. A few hours later, all but about a dozen of the leis were removed. A city spokeswoman said it was not known who removed the leis.

Kahanamoku died on Jan. 22, 1968, at the age of 77. His ashes were scattered off Waikiki in a beach boy funeral witnessed by thousands.

Aug. 24 was the “First Day of Issue” for the stamp, which features a youthful portrait of Kahanamoku by artist Michael J. Deas, with a couple of surfers and Diamond Head in the background.

Hundreds of fans purchased stamps and had first-day cancellations in a Hilton showroom. The stamp was available at some Hawai‘i post offices on Saturday, and will go on sale at other Hawai‘i and mainland post offices Monday.

Nationwide, 62.8 million Kahanamoku commemorative stamps were created, with about 2 million available in Hawai‘i. Customers will have 30 days to obtain the first day of issue postmark by mail.

— The Associated Press

EXTREME EVIDENCE

DNA Clears Second Santa Clara County Rape Suspect

Charges were dropped against a man accused of sexually assaulting his 71-year-old mother in San Jose, Calif., after DNA tests indicated he could not have committed the crime.

An Vinh Nguyen, 31, of San Jose had been held in the Santa Clara County jail since May 1 in lieu of $1 million bail. He was released late Thursday, said Assistant District Attorney Karyn Sinunu on Friday.

It was the second case in two weeks in which DNA test results have led to the dismissal of charges against a sexual assault suspect in Santa Clara County.

On Aug. 9, the district attorney’s office dismissed charges against Jorge Hernandez, who had been in jail since July 18 for investigation of the rape of a 94-year-old woman in May.

Nguyen also was accused of beating his mother and abandoning her for dead in a trash bin near her San Jose home.

“He has been absolutely exonerated in this case,” said public defender Malorie Street, Nguyen’s attorney. “He’s been screaming all along that he didn’t do it.”

The charges were dropped when DNA tests showed semen on the victim’s clothing could not have been from Nguyen.

“One case like this would be unusual,” said Assistant District Attorney Dave Davies. “Two’s very unusual. We agonize over these things. This person has been in custody since May — this is something that should never happen. We hope this never happens in our county.”

— AP

OBITUARY

One of S.F. Chinatown’s Most Colorful Characters Dies at 99

Robert Choy Chan

Chan came to the United States from China at the age of 6, via the Port of Seattle, traveling with his uncle. They soon settled in New York, where he eventually started as a chorus boy performing in vaudeville in a club called The Honorable Mr. Woo. He met his first wife, Rose Lee, a chorus girl, and they moved to Philadelphia, where his only son, Robert, Jr. was born.

Chan was a big part of the entertainment scene, and became lifelong friends with many Asian Pacific American stars of that era. After a brief stint in Los Angeles, where Chan had bit parts in a handful of films — including The Good Earth — his family moved to San Francisco, where he learned to tend bar from famed San Francisco restaurateur Joe Ferrara. By the 1940s both Chan and his dancer wife were employed at the Forbidden City, which became one of San Francisco’s most popular nightspots during World War II.

In the 1950s when the nightclub closed due to waning business, Chan moved on to his next venture, bartending at the historic Tao Tao restaurant on Jackson Street, where he remained for the next 23 years. In that time, Chan came to know “everyone in town,” and was called by many by his nickname, “Uncle Bob.”

Though he retired at the age of 65, he nevertheless continued to tend bar into his early 90s at his “hang out” of 20 years, Red’s Place on Jackson Street. There, he went daily to what he called his office, playing cards with new and old friends and catching up with former colleagues and cronies, some who traveled to San Francisco over the years specifically to see Chan.

Chan died unexpectedly Sunday morning in his room at the On Lok Senior Center, where he had lived for the past three months. Though in excellent health and mental capacity, Chan was being treated for bronchitis the day before, with no signs of serious illness.

No services will be held per his request. All donations should be made to the On Lok Senior Center.

— Nancy Chan

Compiled by Neela Banerjee.