ASSOCIATION OF HAWAIIAN CIVIC CLUBS
A RESOLUTION
No. 2019 -16
REMEMBERING THE LIFE OF RAMONA KAY NEWTON HAO AND HER DEDICATION TO FURTHERING THE EDUCATION OF NATIVE HAWAIIANS
WHEREAS, Ramona Kay Newton Hao was born on November 5, 1937, in her family home in Frankfort, Indiana. Ramona spent her formative years in Indiana, attending and graduating as valedictorian at Michigantown High School in 1955; and
WHEREAS, Ramona graduated from Indiana University with her Bachelor’s Degree in 1959, and met Lawrence Kaholo Hao, a kanaka maoli, from Keaukaha, Hilo, Hawaiʻi, who was also attending Indiana University on a swimming athletic scholarship, and they married on April 15, 1960, in Indiana; and
WHEREAS, Ramona obtained her Master of Arts in Education in 1971, alongside her husband, while raising four children and teaching school; and
WHEREAS, after serving as a teacher and basketball coach in Michigantown and Greentown, Indiana and then in Macomb, Illinois, Ramona and her family moved to Honolulu, Hawaiʻi in 1972, where they made their permanent home so her husband could return to Hawai‘i and her children to learn about their Hawaiian ancestry and culture; and
WHEREAS, Ramona worked as a school teacher at Nānākuli Elementary School; and
WHEREAS, Ramona became a teacher and researcher for the Kamehameha Schools Early Education Program (KEEP), intended to be a five-year experimental project for the Native Hawaiian youth not regularly-enrolled in the Kamehameha Schools; and
WHEREAS, KEEP featured three basic components including compiling, collating, disseminating existing information to determine effective ways of education for Native Hawaiians, and from KEEP, the Hawai’i Department of Education and the Kamehameha Schools initiated additional programs including the PETOM program of which Ramona was a part, for further outreach to Native Hawaiians with an aim to provide a continuing and permanent information and consultation service to the public schools of Hawaiʻi in the educational achievement of the Native Hawaiian youth; and
WHEREAS, Ramona was diagnosed with malignant melanoma in 1977, and after treatment became a cancer survivor; and
WHEREAS, Ramona took a one-year sabbatical from the Kamehameha Schools and obtained her Doctorate in Education in 1986 at the University of Illinois; and
WHEREAS, Ramona served as a member of the Hawai‘i Education Council in 1982 and 1987; and
WHEREAS, Ramona served on the Policy Analysis & System Evaluation (PASE) team, which published PASE Report No. 2000-01, in June 2001 for the State of Hawai‘i Department of Education and the Kamehameha Schools; and
WHEREAS, Ramona was a prolific writer, reviewer, and editor for several educational journals and educational textbooks in Hawaiʻi, and she presented one of her study findings, the Development of a Procedure to Teach Graphemic Bases as Part of a Consultation in Reading at the Annual International Reading Association Far West Regional Conference in July 1976; and
WHEREAS, Ramona was also known for her articles such as Reading and Writing across Preservice Curriulum, Socialcultural Perspectives of Multilingualism and Language and Whole Language: Some Thoughts, and she was also a writer and editor of the Kamehameha Journal of Education in applied educational research; and
WHEREAS, Ramona had a long and fulfilling career as a writer, teacher, and research specialist, for over 30 years, with the Kamehameha Schools, before retiring, after 30 years of service, in 2003; and
WHEREAS, Ramona served as a Professor at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa for several years after her retirement from the Kamehameha Schools, giving of her time, knowledge and experience to students pursuing careers in education; and
WHEREAS, Ramona actively participated in fundraising and furthering the education and research of spinal cord injuries; and
WHEREAS, Ramona retired from education on a permanent basis in 2007, after her diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease; and
WHEREAS, Ramona spent her remaining years traveling and being a devoted and fun-loving mother who always gave of her time and heart to her former co-workers, former students, her family and her friends, and she loved learning and teaching, enjoying good food and being available for anyone that needed her; and
WHEREAS, her warm smile and loving soul will be missed; and
WHEREAS, Ramona loved Hawai‘i as her home and we honor her dedication to the furthering of education and aloha to Native Hawaiians; and
WHEREAS, Ramona participated in ʻĀinahau O Kaleponi Hawaiian Civic Club fundraising and community service activities during the last years of her life while living with her daughter, an active member; and
WHEREAS, Ramona is survived by her husband of 58 years, Lawrence Kaholo Hao; daughters, Kelani Falasco and Pualani Hao Jarvis; and sons, Lance Kanoa Hao and Sean Lani Newton Hao; and
WHEREAS, Ramona is also survived by her moʻopuna, Shauna, Bradley, Scott, Chase, Blaise, Samantha, Abigail, Dustin, Alexa, and Logan; and one great-grandchild, Adelyn.
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, by the Association of Hawaiian Civic Clubs at its 60th Annual Convention in Lahaina, Maui, in the malama of Welehu and the rising of Lāʻau Pau, this 16th day of November 2019, remembering the life of Ramona Kay Newton Hao and her dedication to furthering of the education of Native Hawaiians; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that a certified copy of this resolution be transmitted to the Hao ‘Ohana, Pelekikena of ‘Āinahau O Kaleponi Hawaiian Civic Club, Pelekikena of the Mainland Council of the Association of Hawaiian Civic Clubs, as well as the Governor of the State of Hawai‘i, President of the State Senate, Speaker of the State House of Representatives, Chair of the State Senate subject matter committee on Hawaiian Affairs, Chair of the State House subject matter committee on Hawaiian Affairs, Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, and all County Mayors.
The undersigned hereby certifies that the foregoing Resolution was duly adopted in the malama of Welehu and the rising of Lāʻau Pau on the 16th day of November 2019, at the 60th Annual Convention of the Association of Hawaiian Civic Clubs in Lahaina, Maui.
Hailama V. K. K. Farden, President
