Green Obituaries
Marybeth A. Bonner, 66, Pennsylvania Green Party and 2003 candidate for State Representative, from the Intelligencer Journal:
She was the widow of James G. Bonner, her loving husband of twenty-three years. He died in 1999. Marybeth was passionate about animal rights and the sustainability of our planet. She was an avid reader, a lover of music and film, and she passed these interests on to her children. In 2003, she ran for State Representative from the 99th District on the Green Party ticket. (Read in its entirety below the fold)
William Bonk, Hawaii Green Party, from the Star Bulletin:
William J. Bonk, an archaeologist who studied early native Hawaiian culture, died last Tuesday of cancer, daughter Keiko Bonk said. He was 84.
A University of Hawaii-Hilo anthropology professor for nearly three decades, Bonk also had a taste for politics, supporting his daughter, Keiko, who won a Big Island County Council seat as a member of the Hawaii Green Party in 1992. (Read in its entirety below the fold)
Marybeth H. Bonner
Ephrata resident Marybeth H. Bonner, 66, died at her home on November 27, 2008.
Born in Coatesville, she was the daughter of Grace L. (Lower) Hamill of Honey Brook and the late Samuel F. Heffner, who served as mayor of Coatesville in the early 1950s.
Prior to moving to Ephrata eight years ago, Marybeth lived in Chadds Ford. She attended Coatesville public schools and graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Dickinson College, where she earned a B.S. degree in Mathematics. She held a Ph.D. in Communication Theory from the University of Washington. Professionally, she served as a college teacher, a computer-systems analyst and a technical writer.
She was the widow of James G. Bonner, her loving husband of twenty-three years. He died in 1999. Marybeth was passionate about animal rights and the sustainability of our planet. She was an avid reader, a lover of music and film, and she passed these interests on to her children. In 2003, she ran for State Representative from the 99th District on the Green Party ticket.
In addition to her mother, she is survived by a daughter, Betsy Bonner, of Westport, CT; sister Bettina Heffner, married to Robert Epler, of Lancaster; and a brother, Samuel F. Heffner, III, married to Donna (MacNeill) Heffner, of Ponte Vedra Beach, FL. In addition to her husband and father, she was preceded in death by her daughter Atlantis Black and her brother Joel L. Heffner. Marybeth enjoyed her close friendships with childhood and college friends. These and other family and friends will miss her greatly.
It was her wish not to have a traditional funeral service. You may honor her memory by doing an act of kindness to an animal in need, or by contributing to the Ephrata Public Library: 550 S. Reading Rd., Ephrata, PA 17522. On-line condolences may be made through our website: www.youngfuneralhome.com
William J. Bonk
William J. Bonk, an archaeologist who studied early native Hawaiian culture, died last Tuesday of cancer, daughter Keiko Bonk said. He was 84.
A University of Hawaii-Hilo anthropology professor for nearly three decades, Bonk also had a taste for politics, supporting his daughter, Keiko, who won a Big Island County Council seat as a member of the Hawaii Green Party in 1992.
He was also a Shin Buddhist priest.
Born in Queens, N.Y., to a working-class Polish-German family, Bonk grew up in the Great Depression, passing out campaign buttons for Franklin D. Roosevelt on the streets of New York.
At 17 he joined the Army. It was a pivotal experience that led to his lifelong quest for peace and social equality, his daughter said.
He met his future wife, Fumie, a Hawaii native, at a Buddhist temple in New York. They married in the late 1940s and moved to Hawaii.
As a UH graduate student, Bonk worked on digs at South Point on the Big Island and later brought his students to dig sites. With an interest in diverse cultures, he often invited international students to stay at his house, his daughter said. She often had to give up her bed to students from the South Pacific, Africa, Asia and Europe.
Bonk also worked to save Hawaii’s historical sites. He did an archaeological study at Honokohau before it was destroyed to create a harbor.
A lifelong Democrat, he switched to the Green Party in the 1990s.
Bonk switched parties because he felt his party had become too corrupt and connected with wealthy interests, said Ira Rohter, UH professor of political science who helped found the Hawaii Green Party in the 1990s.
“He was a classic liberal,” he said. “He had these traditional liberal values: equality, social justice, fairness in income, continuation of those sorts of liberal ideas.”
He added, “He was extraordinarily supportive of his daughter.”
In 2004, Bonk went to Japan and became a Buddhist priest.
Besides his wife and daughter, Bonk’s survivors include sons Seizen Bonk and Ken Bonk; brother Peter Bonk of New York; sisters Sophie Ferral and Rosemarie Hall, both of New York; eight grandchildren; and three great grandchildren.
Funeral services will be held Saturday at Honokaa Honpa Hongwanji, with visitation at 11 a.m. and service at noon. The family requests that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to the “Hawaii People’s Fund” for the William Bonk Peace Scholarship Fund.
Bill Bonk made considerable contributions to the study of Hawaiian archaeology. He got his M.A. at the University of Hawaii in 1954, writing about his excavations on the island of Molokai. His degree was the first graduate degree at U.H. in the archaeology of Hawaii. His excavations were the first scientific excavations on the island of Molokai. He took part in many excavations during the 1950s, not only at Ka Lae (South Point) and Honokohau, but also at Nualolo Kai on Kauai. He was co-author of the landmark study of Hawaiian fishhooks and their chronology, along with Yosi Sinoto and Kenneth Emory. He conducted field research in archaeology all his life and wrote numerous manuscript reports which are on file at the State Historic Preservation Office.