Adventure on the Seas with Pete Hendricks
By Ma‘ata Tukuafu
Pete Hendricks knows something about curiosity: it’s why he’s done so many different things over the course of his lifetime. Born on August 1, 1938 in Los Angeles, Pete grew up nearby in Long Beach with four brothers and his hardworking parents, who encouraged independence. His father would strap two-year-old Pete to his back and take him sailing. At the age of 10, Pete started sailing himself, which began his lifelong interest in the sea. By retaining his curiosity, Pete has been motivated to explore new places, investigate different experiences, and learn from the people who have crossed his path.
Education is very important to Pete, and he says he was lucky to grow up in a system where kindergarten to graduate school was almost free. At the time, California had one of the best public school systems and after high school, he chose to attend University of California at Berkeley, graduating in 1961 with a bachelor of arts degree in communication and public policy.
“Curiosity is why I went to Vietnam,” says Pete. “I was in the Navy ROTC [Reserve Officer Training Corps] at UC Berkeley and was required to have two years at sea. One month after I graduated, I was in active duty.”
He went into the Navy as a “fresh ensign with one bar” and worked on an amphibious landing ship, which sometimes carried a whole battalion of Marines. Pete worked under three different captains during his time on the ship, and under the third navy captain, he advanced to be the senior officer on deck. Pete says he learned a lot from this captain, and got a lot of deep-water experience while on that ship. He spent two years on sea duty and sailed waters of the Pacific Rim around Japan, Hong Kong, and the Philippines. He then attended San Diego survival school, and went to work as a volunteer in Vietnam for a year.
“Even with all my ocean experience, I got stuck in a supply job while in Vietnam,” Pete says. “So I started teaching English to South Vietnam government employees. That’s how I started my teaching career.”
He had been through Hawai‘i a few times, and his best friend was stationed at Fort Shafter in Honolulu. Returning to Hawai‘i in 1964, Pete met up with his friend who took him surfing, and he says body surfing is what he loves most. He heard that University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa had a school of education, so he enrolled and got his master’s degree in education. It was while he was surfing, going to school, and working as a clerk at the old Seacrest Manor building (now the Hilton at Waikiki) that he reconnected with his girlfriend Carol. Pete says, “I originally met Carol while I was lifeguarding at Huntington Beach in ‘58 or ‘59. We reconnected in Hawai‘i again in 1965 when she was vacationing with her sister. The timing was right, so we got married in a 20-minute ceremony before a judge. It was a great partnership over 52-plus years.”
Carol brought a four-and-a-half-year-old daughter with her (Aubrey) and later they had two sons, Scott and Nate. Carol worked at the Bank of Hawaii in downtown Honolulu and Pete began student teaching at Stevenson Middle School. He says he “got tired of starving” and to supplement their income, became an investigator for Navy Intelligence for a year. They would visit Hawai‘i Island on vacation and would camp out at Mauna Kea State Park and even on the steps of Miloli‘i School. Pete quotes Yogi Berra, “When you come to a fork in the road, take it.” After finishing his master’s degree, they moved to Honoka‘a where he taught US history at Honoka‘a High School from 1967 to 1969.
At the time, Pete says Hawai‘i Island was all sugarcane operations, with a structured economic and social caste system that was very productive. He and Carol lived in a two-bedroom cottage at Overend Camp for $35 per month and that’s where he met Harry Kim, who lived in the “next cottage up.”
Carol was a very talented artist, a potter, and a painter. She started art classes at the school and the couple built potter’s wheels out of old tire axels. Pete taught 8th and 11th graders (“Had some kids!” he says laughing), and adds that it was a good life, with weekend trips to Hāpuna Beach to body surf. Making only $595 a month with a master’s degree, Pete found out there was an opening for a night assistant at the University of Hawai‘i Institute for Astronomy. It paid a lot more than teaching, and he spent the next five years working four days on, four days off at the small NASA telescope on the summit of Mauna Kea.
“It was only two small fiberglass domes and two 24” telescopes,” he says. “We slept at Hale Pohaku in the ranger cabin, an old building back then.”
In 1974 Pete read in the university bulletin that a position as an extension agent for the University of Hawai‘i Sea Grant on Hawai‘i Island came up. He applied and got the job, working there until 1982, and says it was the link between research in the field and practical use in real life. Pete also started writing a weekly article for West Hawai‘i Today in 1975, which is how he started his writing career.
When the Mauna Lani Hotel opened, Pete ran the boats for the guests. He also helped set up Kohala Divers in the small shopping center at Kawaihae, suggesting the company name to help “put Kohala on the map.” From 1988 to 2000 he held the position of education specialist for the Department of Land and Natural Resources, Division of Aquatic Resources, which Pete says was almost the same type of job as the extension agent work he’d done for University of Hawai‘i. In this position, he produced various education programs, brochures, videos, and conferences.
Retiring from that, he traveled with Carol to Europe and the North American continent. Not one to sit around, Pete continued to serve in various capacities: he was the deputy managing director for Hawai‘i County from 2003 to 2005, a former member of the County Water Commission, Board of Appeals, and the Police Commission. He also wrote for Ke Ola Magazine when it first started, for the “Then and Now” series, and still does on occasion—most recently in the November–December 2020 issue.
For 30 years he attended the conferences of the National Maritime Historical Society, held mostly in Mānoa on O‘ahu, where he has presented papers at symposiums and assisted with research and education.
A charter member of Kawaihae Canoe Club in 1972, he still paddles and has done inter-island outrigger canoe sailing. Ever in service to the Hawai‘i Island community, Pete was the founding member of the YMCA diving/spearfishing and youth/community sailing programs. He still is an active volunteer at the YMCA Kawaihae Aquatic Center.
“I feel blessed to have been privileged with a good education and parents who made us work real hard,” says Pete. “That was the biggest factor; we had chores, washed dishes, cleaned house, and had parents who said, ‘Take your little brother with you.’ They encouraged independence.”
When he was a teacher at Honoka‘a, Pete says he used to “rag on the students,” telling them to work hard and make the right choices. He still tells kids to go off island for work or an education, so they can appreciate where they come from. Pete says he’s fanatical about building leaders and giving everyone an education, saying students need to find “what floats their boat” in order to be successful. He has continued serving in the community, and is a former board member or has volunteered at the Habitat for Humanity, Catholic Charities advisory group, Ulu La‘au Nature Park, and the Waimea Middle School Charter Conversion School Advisory Group.
His wife Carol passed away three years ago, and Pete says he is lucky that all of their kids are leading productive lives and living on-island. Being interested in the kids and their growth when raising them played a big part in their successes. He also appreciates the strong partnership he had with Carol, and remembers saying to their kids, “We don’t care what you are going to be, just be good at it.” His words of advice to the next generation: “Don’t whine. Think about what you are doing. Do more than you ‘have to.’ Try things out and see what happens. Be resilient: don’t be too devastated if you fail. You will be disappointed a lot…get used to it. Coming back from something is more important than achieving.”
In his spare time, Pete is working on a scale model of the Bounty’s launch, is finishing a boat trailer, and says he is tempted to do more writing. He jokes, “I’m late middle-aged, not old!” Always ready with a great story, Pete says he would like to write a book of tales and adventures on the Kohala and Kona Coasts.
Pete Hendricks will never stop being curious, inspiring future generations with his wit, wisdom, and talents. ❖
For more information, call Pete: 808.885.4453
