Katherine Fusae Hamano was born in Honolulu on January 30th, 1947 to Wilbert and Grace Ige. She was the first of four girls to arrive for them, including Shirley Fujimoto, Linda McCloskey, and Eleanor Ige.  She attended Washington Intermediate and McKinley High School, where she graduated in 1965.  She then went on to the University of Hawaii, where she received her degree in Education as well as her fifth year teaching certificate.  At that time she said you either became a teacher or a nurse, so she picked teaching as she loved kids, crafts, and teaching!

Despite being in the midst of a job shortage upon graduating, she managed to secure a teaching spot at Ma'ili Elementary in the early 70’s living in a cottage on the school grounds in Waianae with a number of other teachers, animals, and smells as she recalls.  It was during this time that a fellow named Miles Hamano, an Electrical Engineer from Hilo, was lucky enough to meet her by chance while picking her and a friend up to go to a party.  

Although she jokingly recalls feeling “suffocated” at first as she was not quite used to spending so much time with someone, it was only temporary as she soon realized she had met her soul mate.  Within a year from meeting, they were married.  However, prior to getting married Dad clearly recalls hashing out priorities that would guide them for the rest of their lives.  The first was that children and family would always be top priority.  The second was that they would do most things together or else they figured why get married in the first place. It must have worked because on August 10, 1974 they were married and remained inseparable for the next forty-one years.   

In the 80’s, she moved to Kalihi Elementary where she would spend the rest of her teaching career.  Although small in stature clocking in at 4 feet 9 inches, she was mighty in presence commanding the respect of kids who towered over her even in the 3rd grade.  Her daughter recalls helping her on school holidays and seeing these gigantic boys obediently put their heads down and say, “Yes, Mrs. Hamano. Sorry Mrs. Hamano” ... which was always quite impressive. 

But as she and Miles had discussed, the bulk of the next few decades were spent raising her three children, Royce, Dustin, and Lori Ann and always putting them first.  She coordinated all of their practice schedules, school functions, music lessons, and still had time to help with homework and cook dinner every night. She always seemed to do it with such ease, zipping everyone around in her egg-like Previa van.  To do so, she meticulously planned out and managed the family’s day on the kitchen calendar and gave the family the run down each and every morning.  

In 2002 she was diagnosed with breast cancer and took the year off to fight and defeat it triumphantly.  However, during her year off, she discovered the life of a retiree and decided she loved it!  Many told her not to retire as she would be bored, but her response was always “I think I’ll be juuust fine!” And indeed she was.  She enjoyed the life of leisure for over ten years and never once regretted having her days free to read her mystery books, watch HGTV, Foodtvnetwork, and the Hallmark channel, finish a sudoku puzzle, or chat with friends over email. 

Her retirement was also spent travelling the world and visiting her children frequently as for a while they were living coast to coast.  She also loved getting together with family and friends…especially to eat some good food…or some dessert! She often looked forward to her retiree teacher luncheons and was always looking for Trader Joe goodies to bring back for her “lunch bunches” as she called them.  But perhaps her favorite pass-time was talking and listening to her kids.  She was a fantastic listener who always knew what to say to calm you down, give you words of encouragement when you needed, or simply listen to you vent. The family spoke to her almost daily—bothering her on daily commutes, in between meetings, or any time something happened that you wanted to share.  She was always there and the first person you thought of to call. 

On February 10th, 2015, she peacefully passed away surrounded by the family she happily created—her husband, two sons, daughter, and son-in-law were all with her to wish her the best as she embarked on her new journey in life. Although she is no longer physically with us, we take comfort in knowing she was truly content and happy in life.  She had definitely lived life to the fullest and we know without a doubt she had no regrets.