The Rev. Edward Keahi Kapo'o (April 7, 1911- July 7, 1969) was born on the windward side of the island of Maui at a small town/plantation camp called Kaheka, which no longer exists. His parents were pure-blooded Hawaiians. Just like him, his father was an ordained minister of the Hawaiian Congregation Church.

Edward Kapo'o in his 20's worked as a member of President F. Roosevelt's CCC, the Conservation Corps, and helped build the Keanae camp gymnasium and the Hale Mau'u, or Switchback, Trail into Haleakala Crater at Haleakala National Park on Maui.

He served in WWII in the Pacific. After that, he returned to school, attending college at Antioch College, Ohio, and theological seminary in Yankton, South Dakota. Returning to Hawaii, he was the assistant pastor at the old and prestigious Kawaiha'o church in Honolulu, HI until his return to Maui in about 1968.

He also helped train Peace Corps volunteers at a training center in Waipio Valley on the Big Island of Hawaii for service on Pacific Islands during the 1960's.

He was very interested in preserving Hawaiian language and culture. At the beginnings of the "Hawaiian Renaissance movement" in the 1960's, Rev. Kapo'o wrote a Hawaiian Language book which he used in teaching classes at the Windward YMCA on O'ahu island and later, in 1968, at Baldwin High School on Maui. The book was never published.

He was married and divorced from Helen Brown, with whom he had two step daughters, Ilona Kapo'o (Brown?) Kaholokula and Helen Kapo'o (Brown?) Purdy.

He told the story of his mother riding a horse from Paia to Hana when his father lay paralyzed from a stroke while he was serving as minister at Wananalua Church in Hana. His mother had no way of knowing that her husband was critically ill except for her "sixth sense" of it. She rode the 56 miles of twisting and then-very-poor rode without stopping and got there before he died.

Rev. Edward Keahi Kapo'o is buried in the Veterans' Cemetery in Makawao, Maui, HI.

Edward K Kapoo