The Rotary Club of South Hilo celebrated its 60th anniversary last month.
That milestone alone is worth noting.
But the group gathered in the Moku‘ola Ballroom of the Hilo Hawaiian Hotel had another anniversary in its midst.
Jimmy Souza, 87, has been a member of the club since its inception.
There aren’t many Rotary clubs worldwide that can say they still have a charter member attending meetings, said Christianna Kistler, one of the group’s newest members.
Souza also is the longest-running sergeant-at-arms for the group: This year is his 40th in the role.
“It’s amazing when you think that since our beginning, the club has never been without Jimmy Souza,” Rotary Club of South Hilo President Pat Aiona said in a recent announcement.
It’s equally difficult to think of Hilo without Souza’s presence.
Through the years, he’s been a Hawaii County councilman, Hawaii Planning Commission member, president of the Hilo High School Alumni Association and Hilo Jaycees and the first president of the Portuguese Chamber of Commerce, to name a few. He’s the unofficial mayor of Papaikou, where he has lived for almost all of his life.
Since 2010, Mayor Billy Kenoi has declared two separate days “Jimmy Souza Day,” issuing in one case a resolution noting that the day’s honoree was “a master storyteller and keeper of the oral history of growing up in Hilo in ‘the good old days.’”
“It was paradise,” Souza said after a recent Tuesday Rotary meeting. There were almost no cars, although there were enough to keep business going at Hilo Motors, where Souza worked for 42 years before retiring. People left their doors open and unlocked. The plantation tradition of different camps gathering for meals was alive and well.
“There was a big feast; everybody was ready to help each other,” Souza said.
“Everybody got along. We teased each other,” he said. “I never minded being called ‘Portagee,’” he said. Today, he said, you have to watch what you say.
Though they came together to eat, the different camps — Japanese, Portuguese, Filipino — still married largely within their own groups. Souza broke that mold when he married Janet Osaki. They recently celebrated their 63rd anniversary (Osaki is also an honorary Rotary member).
“The thing that helped us out to make it easier was she was Catholic before I met her,” Souza said. “So, being both Catholics, that kind of gave us an excuse.”
Souza’s father worked for Onomea Sugar Co., but died at age 42. Souza was just a sophomore in high school.
He took a job as a dishwasher with Standard Drug to help support the family. His mother, who emigrated from Portugal and “couldn’t drive, couldn’t read or write, hardly,” learned to drive, got her license and took a job at White Star Laundry. Souza started working at Hilo Motors during his junior year, pumping gas at the service station.
He was 27 when he attended the very first Rotary Club of South Hilo meeting with 20 other men. William Bergin approached Souza’s boss at Hilo Motors about Souza becoming a charter member.
“My boss called me into his office and said that he would want me to join Rotary — so how can you say no?” Souza said. “And I’m glad he did.”
The past 60 years have seen numerous Rotary service initiatives, including the international effort to eliminate polio, but Souza’s favorite project makes its impact closer to home.
“The Hilo Huli, at Coconut Island — I think that’s an outstanding project,” he said. “Our club gets together; everybody’s involved.” And the money goes right back into the Hilo community, which Souza loves to see.
The goals of Rotary haven’t changed since its founding, but other things have.
“A lot of the attitudes changed, and what I mean by attitude is when we first started, you couldn’t come in shorts, you’ve gotta shave that day,” Souza said. Today, he said, “the dress is not important … whether you come dressed up or not, you do the same community service.”
Souza’s own attitudes have changed as well: When Rotary was preparing to bring in its first women as members, he was against the idea.
“But I gotta apologize,” he said. “They got involved, and they’re really, really the soul of the club.”
He wouldn’t think of wearing shorts to a Tuesday meeting, though.
In that way, he said, “I still come from the old style.”
Email Ivy Ashe at iashe@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
