Meet Our Donors
Teri & Kiku Kawata
Rev. Dr. Teruo Kawata, member of the RHF Board of Directors, fondly remembers that fateful day in the 1970's when he met our founder, Rev. Clark Harshfield.
At the time Dr. Kawata was the United Church of Christ (UCC) Conference Minister in the Central Pacific Conference (Oregon and Southern Idaho). The Portland area was in great need of senior housing, so Dr. Kawata asked Rev. Harshfield if RHF could build in the Portland area.
Although a retirement community did not occur at that time, their meeting proved to be providential for the both of them. It was only a few short years later when Dr. Kawata, who was now the Conference Minister in Hawaii, was approached by Rev. Harshfield to join RHF in the development of Pauahi Kupuna Hale in Honolulu with 48 apartments serving-older adults. Dr. Kawata graciously agreed and a long relationship between Dr. Kawata and RHF began.
Dr. Kawata graduated from the University of Chicago Divinity School in 1952, and was ordained to the Christian Ministry in June of that year. He served churches in California and Hawaii, and on the national staff of the United Church of Christ.
He was elected Conference Minister in 1976, first to the Central Pacific Conference and later to the Hawaii Conference.
He earned a Doctor of Ministry degree from the Pacific School of Religion and received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from the Pacific University (Forest Grove, Oregon).
It was in 1991 that Dr. Kawata kindly accepted our invitation to become a member of the RHF Board of Directors. Dr. Kawata is not only busy with his RHF board responsibilities, but he continues other important volunteer dedication to the UCC.
He has presented addresses at several UCC conferences and has served as preacher for the General Synod of the UCC. And he somehow has found the time to author two books and has had several articles published in other books and professional journals.
Dr. Kawata is married to Kiku who has served on the Advisory Commission of RHF since 1991. Kiku has a degree from Marylhurst University in Oregon, and has served as preschool teacher and social worker working with military families at the Marine Air Corps base in Kaneohe, Hawaii.
Teri and Kiku Kawata have three grown children, three grandchildren and two great grandchildren!
RHF is extremely humbled and grateful for the time and financial support the Kawatas’ have given to our mission not only for the people we serve now but for generations to come, having become members of the RHF Circle of Friends in 2003.
“Giving has been written deep in our psyche as part of faithful response to God’s love. Though our resources have always been quite limited, from the earliest years of our life together we have wanted to share the abundance of God’s gifts to us,” says Dr. Kawata.
“As one big expression of that response of faith, we took early retirement in 1989 so we could go to the Silliman University in the Philippines as volunteer missionaries to serve as the University Pastor and Visiting Professor of Preaching and Worship (1989-90). In our retirement years, we were happy and privileged to be asked to join RHF. RHF is engaged in a very important ministry, so along with education and addressing world poverty, hunger and disaster, RHF was included in our estate planning.”
