Herbert William Correa

Aloha Kakou, We are gathered here as a celebration of life for my father Herbert William Correa, who has touched so many lives. He was ‘ama’oma’o – a bright soul, who had a giving heart – he na’au ha’awi. My father was a very generous person who would volunteer his time and skills to family and friends. He lived by the value of achievement and excellence, to always kulia i ka nu’u – strive to reach the summit. These are values he instilled in his mentoring and guidance. He was a believer in pursuing personal excellence in all that you do, and always said “anything worth doing, is worth doing well.” There was no half-assing things with him. He would ho’ohana – to work with intent and purpose. He was a master plan kind of person who would always have a plan put together before he set out to do something. With building, he would do a sketch and take-off, crunch all the numbers and double check everything down to the last detail. He was an amazing visionary, with amazing math skills. He was so good, that on multiple occasions when I was with him, other contractors would come to him and ask if he could look at their drawings and do a take-off for them. He would open the set of prints and look at it for a few minutes; take a piece of paper, and give them a complete material list, down to the very last nail. He never used a calculator or scratch pad; he would crunch all the numbers in his head. I have been doing construction work for 30-years and have never come across anyone that was as fast and accurate as my dad was. It still blows my mind till this day. Lawai’a nana e ka’ana like I kana mau hopu – the fisherman that shares his catch. He was taught the old Hawaiian way, passed down through his ancestors, as well as learning on his own, and fishing with Uncle Harry and good friends like Shige and Steve. My father has told me many fishing stories, but there is one story that has really stuck with me, and I would like to share it with you today. As a young man, he grew up fishing in Kaiaka Bay in a homemade canoe. He said there was a lot of mullet in the bay, and the mullet were very smart. He said they would stay away from shore, so they were hard to catch, so he waited until high tide, when the pile of mullet would go into the river mouth. He laid a net across the river, from bank to bank, thinking he would get them as the tide went out, but the mullet were so smart, that they would all jump over the net! So, he went home and thought about it all night, and the next day, he waited until the pile came in with the tide, and he laid his net again. But this time, he took haole koa sticks and stuck them in the mud about 3’ away and tied another net in the air across the river. And when the mullet would jump over the first net, they got stuck nose first in the second net that was in the air! He told me that story with a huge smile on his face, and I could picture him as a young boy with his homemade canoe in Kaiaka Bay, having the time of his life. My father loved the ocean since he was a little boy and spent most of his free time either in it, or on it in a boat. In his younger days, he was also a cowboy, and a race car driver, amongst other things, but to keep this short, I will save those stories for another day. For those who know Herb, knows that his most favorite things to do is to drink, talk story, eat pupus, and play music, pretty much in that order. But over the past 5-years, I have learned more about my dad than I have ever known. Even though I had to listen to a few stories multiple times, and navigate through the riddles, I learned a lot, and will always cherish those moments.