Remembering Art Souza

Art Souza on PBS Hawaii's Long Story Short with Leslie Wilcox, 2018. Watch here.

Art Souza was a champion for education, youth, and community for decades. As the Honoka‘a-Kealakehe-Kohala-Konawaena Complex Area Superintendent, he saw the need for collective action to improve the outlook for young people in West Hawaiʻi.

He brought government agencies and nonprofits together to talk about how we could all do better together.

These initial talks eventually formed Hōkūpaʻa, which held its first official meeting in early 2015.

Art brought so much warmth and wisdom to our navigation council, and continued to serve with us after his retirement from the Department of Education.

Toward Hōkūpaʻa’s beginnings, Art said, “The work of educating a child is the work of an entire community.” Art carried that charge with all of us, and it remains our shared kuleana. Art Souza passed away on January 27th, 2023, and we miss him dearly as we continue to strive to empower young people as our future leaders and agents of change.

Tributes

Right: first official Hōkūpaʻa meeting, January 2015.

Words from Hōkūpaʻa members
past and present

Susan Maddox, Friends of the Future:

I first met Art in 1997; he was a mentor, a colleague and a friend. In addition to Hōkupaʻa's work, he and I were connected by 3 cycles of 21st Century Community Learning Center grants. His passion for seeing children thrive and become future leaders was amazing. His absolute commitment to changing our education system was unwavering, and he saw Hōkupaʻa as the perfect vehicle to make that change. There can be no greater legacy than for us, collectively, than to continue his life's work.

Gale Mejia, The Learning Coalition:

I got to know Art after joining The Learning Coalition in 2016. It was a time of transition for our foundation and Art was so generous in sharing his manaʻo with me. With his many years of experience in education and community leadership, his actions, words and advice were truly a gift. He was and still is a wonderful example of someone who lived and demonstrated the values of Nā Hopena Āʻo. He will be missed. A hui hou my friend. May you rest in eternal peace.

Mitch Roth, founding Hōkūpaʻa member

Wow, As I write this I have a hard time believing that you are gone.  I can still see your smiling face and hear your voice as we talked about not only keeping kids out of our criminal justice system but making sure they grow up to be contributing members of our society.   I think that because of the work you have done, many of those kids have grown up to be responsible members of our community who are themselves raising strong families.  Hawaii County and the kids that have grown up here are much better because of you.

Thanks Art.
Your friend always.
Mitch Roth