“David K. Keala: Family Patriarch—and Homemaker of the Year,” Ensign, Sept. 1985, 52–53
David K. Keala: Family Patriarch—and Homemaker of the Year
David Kaluna Keala was probably as surprised as anyone when he was named Homemaker of the Year on the island of Maui in Hawaii. But he suspects his wife may have had something to do with his selection, through the chapter of the national homemaking organization in which both are involved.
The Kealas’ strong family values were undoubtedly also a factor in their selection as one of nine “Great American Families” for the United States in 1983.
David Keala’s concept of family extends to wherever his posterity live. That is evident in the painting of the family tree that occupies one dining room wall in the two-story, sixteen-room Keala home on the slopes of the dormant volcano Haleakala. In a heart at the trunk are inscribed the names of David Kaluna Keala and Rebecca Foo Sum Keala. On the branches and leaves are clustered the names of their three children and their families, extending now to great-grandchildren.
“I’m happy that I’ve been able to see my great-grandchildren,” Brother Keala says, adding that many people do not have that opportunity. He explains that he feels a responsibility for all of his posterity, not so much temporally as spiritually. “Although they are not under our roof and they have a family of their own, these are still our children.”
He has strong feelings about families—that he has a responsibility to teach grandchildren and great-grandchildren principles he helped his children learn, and that husbands and wives have a responsibility to work together in building a strong, moral home. Family members should support each other in all their activities, he believes. That bit of philosophy may have helped bring about his selection as Homemaker of the Year.
Rebecca Keala was active in the Maui University Extension Club, and rather than let her drive to night meetings alone, Brother Keala took her himself. “Learning with the women of the club (which is associated with the national University Home Extension Program) seemed better than waiting in the car.”
In 1982, when the selection committee called to tell him he had won the award, “I thought they were talking about my wife. She has held every position from president to national delegate in the twenty-eight years of her membership in the club.” Now he is president of the organization’s Maui council, and his goal is to get more men into the organization, to help them realize that making a home is not the job of the wife alone.
He always puts principles learned through the gospel uppermost in his life, his wife and children say. Rebecca Keala recalls that in 1983, when they traveled to Washington, D.C., for presentation of the “Great American Family” awards by the University Cooperative Extension Service, her husband made sure their first activity was visiting the temple.
When the Kealas traveled to Washington, accompanied by other family members, their forty-two pieces of luggage carried pineapples, macadamia nuts, and leis to share with anyone from taxi drivers to the 130 other people at the awards banquet. The Kealas volunteered their singing and dancing for the banquet and also shared a twenty-six page booklet, “The Aloha Spirit Begins at Home,” which told about their family and contained the hymn “Love at Home,” with a Hawaiian translation.
“I have known David for over thirty years, and his character is exemplary in being honest and fair,” says his friend, patriarch Frederick Mau. Brother Keala teaches quietly, and by example.
His son David recalls that once some high school friends had asked him to go to a football game on Sunday. “I asked Dad, and he answered simply, ‘You know what’s right and wrong.’” David declined.
To a grandson who had removed his tie and rolled up his sleeves to be in fashion with other deacons, Brother Keala simply offered a quiet reminder about the sacredness of passing the sacrament. After discussing her concerns with a granddaughter-in-law seeking counsel, Brother Keala advised, “Don’t do what I say. Always pray about what you hear, because the Lord helps us see the right answer.” Calling to visiting family members leaving his home early for a day’s activity, he asked, “Did you have your morning prayer?”
Brother Keala speaks lovingly of his parents, David Kaaa and Juliet Kalama Kaluna Keala, and their fine example. “I often say I wish I could be half the man my father was.” His parents set an example of Church activity he still follows. He is serving as coordinator for the early morning seminaries in his stake.
But that is not his only association with education. He is a volunteer in the Kupuna (Grandparent) Program with the Hawaii Department of Education. Four days a week, he teaches Hawaiian language and culture to children at the Kula Elementary School.
“The word aloha means unconditional love,” he explains. “What better way can I share it than through the gospel of Jesus Christ in my home and my community.”
Photography by Pierre of Lahaina Studios