The Honpa Hongwanji Hilo Betsuin’s 24th annual Veterans Appreciation Service will be celebrated at 9 a.m. Sunday, Nov. 3. All veterans, spouses, family and friends, regardless of religious preference, are invited to gather in unity and diversity to honor and appreciate servicemen and servicewomen and their families.
Featured speaker will be Robert Roman, who was born in Olaa and graduated from Hilo High School in 1962.
After Roman graduated, then-Congressman Daniel Inouye appointed him to the Air Force Academy where he majored in international relations. In 1967, Lt. Roman received his pilot wings and flew combat missions as part of a unit in Vietnam.
Upon returning from Southeast Asia, he was assigned to Kincheloe Air Force Base in Michigan as a pilot of a KC-135, an air refueling tanker aircraft. His final military assignment was in the Pentagon as chief of the Foreign Liaison Division in charge of coordinating and supporting the activities of all the military staff from other countries. He retired from the military in 1992 at the rank of colonel.
In civilian life, he managed a travel agency, was a meeting planner for a computer industry firm and taught and coached soccer, baseball and golf at Tioga High School in California. He also served two years as athletic director at that school.
After moving back to Hawaii, he became an assistant soccer coach at Kamehameha Schools before transferring to golf coach in 2005. In 2008, Roman received a request from the highest levels of the state government to start a special STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) program, STARBASE, designed to bring advanced science-related experiences to the fifth-grade students of the Ka‘u-Keaau-Pahoa Complex Area.
With that successful program well on its way in 2011, he returned to coaching golf at Kamehameha and retired in 2018.
Although he no longer flies, he continues to work with the local Civil Air Patrol squadron as a volunteer aerospace instructor. Once an aviator, always an aviator.
He and his wife, Claudia, have three sons and live in Kurtistown.
Refreshments will be served after the service.
Contact the office at 961-6677 if you plan to attend and do not belong to a veterans organization.
The Board of Spiritual Affairs, led by Valerie Galacgac, looks forward to everyone’s participation in this auspicious event to honor and remember all who served our community and world.