When she was 16 years old, Kathy Higaki took on what was supposed to be a simple, part-time job after school. ADVERTISING When she was 16 years old, Kathy Higaki took on what was supposed to be a simple, part-time
When she was 16 years old, Kathy Higaki took on what was supposed to be a simple, part-time job after school.
Fifty-eight years later, and the office manager is finally bringing to a close her long and productive career with the Hawaii Tribune-Herald.
On the occasion of her 55th work anniversary, then-publisher Ted Dixon described Higaki as the paper’s very own institution.
“She’s the heart and soul and institutional memory of this place,” he said. “In this transient society, hardly anyone stays anywhere that long. … A lot of companies don’t even stay in business that long.”
In fact, Higaki outlasted the newspaper’s original name — the Hilo Tribune-Herald — and multiple owners, including the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, Donrey Media, and Stephens Media Group.
“The secret to Kathy’s success is her incredible kindness and humility,” said current publisher David Bock, who has worked with Higaki for 18 years. “She’s the kind of person everyone loves to be around. Her integrity, honesty and professionalism can never be replaced.”
Higaki’s cousin and two sisters had each worked at the paper before her, operating the circulation department’s switchboard. The job was what she called a family “hand-me-down,” passed on from one teen to the next as they graduated from high school.
Higaki, 74, began her stint with the company in mid-August 1956. For several years, her activities revolved around “one of those old-fashioned switchboards, with green and red cords we plugged in and out,” she said. “Sometimes, I got yelled at for pulling the wrong cord and cutting someone off.”
Higaki said it was a bit intimidating for a 16-year-old girl answering calls, especially from occasionally irate customers, but she soon got the hang of it.
“I just tried to be as nice as I could and take their complaints,” she said. “I learned to just have a lot of patience early on.”
When it came time for her to graduate from high school, Higaki said she entertained plans of becoming a home economics teacher. She enrolled at the University of Hawaii campus in Hilo for a year, but at the time, the campus only served first-year students, and when it came time to transfer, she realized she wasn’t interested in heading to Honolulu.
“I didn’t want to go,” she said. “I’m a homebody.”
Instead, she accepted a full-time position on the switchboard. In 1960, she was promoted to the position of circulation clerk. Ten years later, she was promoted to assistant office manager, and then in 1985 she came into her current role as office manager.
In addition to new technologies, such as the deeply underappreciated automated switchboard, Higaki said she’s seen plenty of people come and go. And that’s really what has been the secret to her longevity, she said.
“The staff was so good,” she said. “They did all the real work, I just sort of supervised them. Life has been good to me. They were my backbone. I’ve really been blessed.”
Higaki said she is looking forward to helping her son with his sign-making business, as well as trying out a few new pie recipes and doing some traveling.
“I think it will be hard at first, after coming into the office for 58 years every day. But now it’s time for me to enjoy myself and relax,” she said.
Email Colin M. Stewart at cstewart@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
