A death

The Passing of  H. James Bartels

With great sadness to anyone who knew Jim Bartels, the following
excerpt from the Honolulu Star-Bulletin should be noted.

He is terribly missed.

    Jim Bartels / 1945-2003
    Former curator of 'Iolani Palace dies 20 April
    By Leila Fujimori <lfujimori [at] starbulletin__com>

    Jim Bartels, 57, Washington Place director and former longtime
    curator and managing director of Iolani Palace, died (Easter)
    Sunday in Newport Beach, Calif.

    "I was playing the queen's (Liliuokalani's) music for him when
    he died, and 'Aloha 'Oe' came on," said ex-wife Regina
    Kawananakoa, who was at his bedside at Hoag Presbyterian
    Hospital.

    Bartels died of infections after successful treatment for
    multiple myeloma, tumors of the bone marrow, with which he was
    diagnosed on Dec. 23, she said.

    Bartels oversaw completion of the restoration of Iolani Palace,
    where he was curator for 21 years and well loved by the
    volunteer docents who served as palace guides he trained.

    "The state of Hawaii has lost one of its greatest treasures,
    because he can't share all that knowledge he had," said Iolani
    Palace docent Dorothy Kendall, who met Bartels in 1975 after he
    became curator. "Any docent he trained came away with absolute
    devotion to the palace that he loved, and then it became the
    palace you loved."

    Bartels, who was part-Hawaiian and had ties to royal Hawaiian
    lineage, was well respected for his depth of knowledge of the
    Hawaiian monarchy.

    He resigned as curator in 1998 after a controversy stemming from
    a dispute with Abigail Kawananakoa, then-president of Friends of
    Iolani Palace. Kawananakoa, a descendent of royalty, posed for
    Life magazine seated on the palace throne, a move Bartels
    criticized.

    Born in Honolulu on July 25, 1945, Henry James Bartels attended
    Punahou School and received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from
    the University of Hawaii. He earned a UH graduate degree in
    Asian and Pacific art.

    After serving in the Navy during the Vietnam War, Bartels
    started with Iolani Palace as a volunteer in 1970, becoming
    curator in 1975 and management director in 1997.

    Kendall recalled the first time she saw Bartels nearly 30 years
    ago carrying "almost with reverence" a calabash that once
    belonged to the king.

    Bartels was named Washington Place director in 1998 to restore
    the mansion, once home to Queen Liliuokalani.

    "I think that's going to be his greatest legacy," said former
    first lady Vicky Cayetano. "Though Jim's love and passion was
    Hawaiiana, he made that so meaningful to everyone in our
    community regardless of our background or ethnic diversity. He
    was just so special. It's really a loss."

    Bartels is survived by sisters Paula Grupido and Helene Kerster.

D. Thor Minnick
Conservator of Wooden Artifacts
Minnick Associates
913 Waimanu Street
Honolulu, Hawai'i 96814-3317
808-597-8142


                                  ***
                  Conservation DistList Instance 16:72
                   Distributed: Monday, May 19, 2003
                       Message Id: cdl-16-72-001
                                  ***