Prominent Hilo-born business and community leader Fred J. Koehnen died at home Wednesday following an illness. He was 92.
Koehnen was the son of German immigrants and second generation of F. Koehnen Ltd.., which was founded in 1910 and is still in existence, although the family’s three-generation retail store, Koehnen’s Interiors, closed in 2012. The family sold the historic F. Koehnen Building in downtown Hilo last year.
“My dad was the head of the family,” his daughter, Helie Rock, said Thursday. “We turned to him for everything, as did many other people. They turned to him for the answers to everything because he knew everything. He was an expert on so much. He was just the most brilliant man I knew.”
Rock said her father “loved the Big Island and the community” and had a passion for community service. He served on the boards of Hilo Medical Center Foundation, Lyman Museum and Mission House, Hilo Boarding School, Herbert C. Shipman Foundation, Volcano Art Center and Orlando Lyman Charitable Trust.
Barbara Moir, Lyman Museum executive director and president, remembers Koehnen as “a very steady friend and mentor” and “a great friend to the museum.”
“I feel his loss terribly,” Moir said.
The museum honored Koehnen in September 2015 when he published his memoir, “Been There Done That Back to Hilo” — which is sold in the museum gift shop with proceeds benefiting the museum.
In the book, he recounts an odyssey from Hilo to Germany in 1936 which includes two shipwrecks, and how African-American track athlete Jesse Owens rained on Adolf Hitler’s parade at the Berlin Olympics by winning four gold medals.
“Reading the book, you feel like you’re sitting there with a glass of wine by the fireplace listening to some great stories — all of which are true,” Moir said. “And anyone who wants to find out what Hilo was like in the earlier part of last century, all the way up to the ’70s and ’80s and beyond should read it. It was a gift to the community, like he was.”
Koehnen was a freshman at the University of Hawaii at Manoa when Pearl Harbor was bombed on Dec. 7, 1941. He immediately entered the U.S. Army and served in its Air Corps until his discharge in 1946. In 1947, he joined the Hawaii Army National Guard and later transferred to the U.S. Army Reserve, serving in Vietnam and retiring as a colonel in 1976.
He witnessed firsthand the devastation caused by the 1946 Hilo tsunami, received an invitation to the White House to meet President Richard Nixon, and was in the gallery when Jack Nicklaus won one of his six green jackets at The Masters Golf Tournament.
“He loved golf and he spent a lot of time golfing,” Rock said. “His favorite golf course was the Volcano Golf and Country Club. He loved the outdoor life. In his teenage years, he spent the summer months at Kapapala Ranch. And there was a year after World War II … when he worked as a paid cowboy on Kapapala Ranch. He always said that was the best life there ever was.”
In addition, Koehnen served as administrative assistant to County Chairman Shunichi Kimura from 1964-67 and was president of the Hawaii County Charter Commission when the charter was adopted in 1968. He also was a securities broker and was manager of the Hilo office of Paine Webber and a founding member of the Hilo Downtown Improvement Association. Rock’s memories, however, are of a wonderful father and husband.
“He was generous to a fault and he was so supportive, and we loved him dearly,” she said.
Other survivors include wife, Carolyn Koehnen of Hilo; daughters, Lynne Forbes of Hilo and Kristi (Gary) Robinson of Kapolei, Oahu; son, Owen Koehnen of Hilo; sister, Helie Rohner of Hilo; five grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren; a niece and nephew.
Private services are pending.
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.
