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18 — THE QUAN
Robert C. Allen
Robert C. Allen, engaged in every facet
of Hawaii’s tourism industry for more than
35 years, died May 25 in the Center for the
Aging at Tripler Army Medical Center.
The 92-year-old Kaneohe resident, commonly
referred to as “Bob,” was the president
and director of various organizations
including the Hawaii Visitors Bureau,
Grayline Hawaii and the Hotel Operating Co.
He served as chairman of numerous
tourism committees and co-founded the
Hawaii Skal Club, which consisted of business
leaders in the field.
Allen pioneered Hawaii’s marketing and
sales program by informing travel agents on
the mainland and in Southeast Asia about
the islands’ customs and attributes. He
worked with prominent individuals such as
premier industrialist, Henry J. Kaiser, and
hotel guru, Roy Kelley, to incorporate the
world’s largest catamaran into the Pearl
Harbor sightseeing tour.
His efforts created marketing conditions
that opened the door for future travel in both
directions. The number of Hawaii travel
agents grew from a few hundred directly
after the war to more than 25,000 by 1990.
Allen’s book, “Creating Hawaii Tourism,”
published in 2004, described the events and
people that contributed to the industry’s
dramatic growth and development.
“He was greatly respected within the
tourism industry and was often referred to as
‘Mr. Tourism,’ ” said Ernie Albrecht, former
Skal Club president and Pan American
Airways manager. “I have a tremendous
respect for his ability and what he was trying
to do for the state.”
Albrecht, who knew Allen for about 50
years and referred to him as a “brother,”
often ate lunch with him or watched him
play polo. Allen was a former Hawaii Polo
Club president and frequently played at
local parks.
Prior to Allen’s involvement with tourism
and polo, he attended Southwestern Uni -
versity School of Business Adminis tra tion,
Los Angeles, and became the chief accountant
for a mining company in the Philippines.
While in the Philippines, he served in the
U.S. Navy Reserve and was captured by the
Japanese during World War II. Allen spent
the next three years as a prisoner of war in
two Japanese camps where he met his
future wife, Helene, who is often referred to
as “Billie.” The couple would have celebrated
their 60th wedding anniversary.
“He was a loving husband, caring father
and wonderful grandfather,” Helene Allen
said.
Robert Allen is also survived by
daughters Linda and Sherry, and two
grandchildren.
A private funeral service was held.
————————
~ Deceased ~
Sasoun Samuel Boghosian
Sasoun Samuel “Sam” Boghosian
passed away on Saturday, August 20,
2005 at the age of 84, of natural causes.
He was born on August 2, 1921. He was a
member of the “Greatest Generation”.
Boghosian enlisted in the U.S. Army Air
Corps at the age of 19, in April of 1941.
Shortly after the outbreak of the war, he
was captured and served three and a half
years as a prisoner of war on the Island of
Mindanao in the Philippines, two years of
which he was listed as missing in action.
Following Boghosian’s liberation in
September of 1945, he spent two years in
military hospitals slowly recovering from
the injuries and illnesses he had suffered
during the war.
He then met and married the love of his
life, his “sweetheart” Arpie “Penny”
Kavoukjian, and they had two sons Jeffrey
and Richard.
He was awarded the Purple Heart with
two Oak Leaf Clusters, and 16 other
American and Philippine military awards
and decorations, in addition to the Air
Combat Crewman’s Award for Aerial
Gunman Wings.
After military service, Boghosian was a
theatre projectionist for 34 years and
newsreel cameraman for Fox Movietone
News.
He loved his country and continued to
serve it all his life. He was nominated by
Governor George Deukmejian and appointed
by President George H.W. Bush to serve
on the Selective Service Board.
Boghosian was preceded in death by
Arpie “Penny” Boghosian, his loving wife
and “sweetheart” of over 50 years; his son
Jeffrey; his father and mother Ohannes
and Asdik; his sisters, Hasmig Boghosian
and Joan Haroutunian; and his nephew,
John Boghosian.
He is survived by his son Richard;
sisters, Shirley Paboojian of Fresno, and
Joyce Boghosian of Martinez; brothers,
Joe Boghosian of Fresno, Sirag Sam
Boghosian of Indian Wells, and Marty
Boghosian of Montclair, NJ; sisters-in-law,
Hasmig Aaronian and Queenie
Marsoobian; and 13 nieces and nephews.
Visitation was held at Whitehurst,
Sullivan, Burns & Blair Chapel, 1525 E.
Saginaw Way on Thursday, August 25,
2005, from 12:00 noon to 7:00 p.m.
A funeral service was held at Holy Trinity
Armenian Apostolic Church, 2226 Ventura
Street on Friday, August 26, 2005, at 10:00
a.m. Interment followed at Ararat
Cemetery.
————————
Philip Brain, Jr.
By Trudi Hahn
Star Tribune Staff Writer
Philip Brain, Jr. found the purpose he
had promised himself during a grueling
segment of harsh captivity that followed his
capture by the Japanese on the Bataan
Peninsula of the Philippines during World
War II.
He decided to serve, spending 35 years
as an executive with the YMCA and
becoming active in the service group
Rotary International.
Services were held for Brain, of Bloom -
ington. The longtime resident of Edina,
who suffered from dementia, died May 5 of
natural causes involving poor blood circulation,
which may have stemmed from his
wartime deprivations, said his wife,
Deloris, of Golden Valley. He was 89.
Born in Libby, Mont., Brain moved as a
toddler with his family to Minneapolis,
where his father, Phil Brain, Sr., became a
tennis coach for the University of
Minnesota.
Brain, Jr. was a tennis player at Roose -
velt High School and for the University of
Minnesota. He graduated in 1939.
He attended graduate school at George
Williams College in Chicago, and took his
first job with the YMCA at Camp Menogyn,
north of Grand Marais.
He was drafted in April 1941 and, as a
member of the 194th Tank Battalion, which
included many Minnesotans, was among
about 12,000 retreating troops captured a
year later on Bataan by the Japanese. Their
captors forced the troops into what became
known as the Bataan Death March — days
of starvation and fatal brutality for those
who couldn’t keep up.
That was followed by prison camps and
a trip to Japan on a “hell ship,” where prisoners
could not sit or lie down until enough
men died to thin the numbers. In Japan
came the slave labor — for Brain, that
meant descending 478 steps daily into a
copper mine and climbing back out again
at workday’s end.
The Bataan experience “was something
so dreadful that living through it had to
shape a direction in my life,” he said in
1992. “On those prison ships, I decided
that I would try to find a purpose if I ever
got out of them. I think serving is the best
purpose.”
He worked for the YMCA as Camp
Menogyn director, branch executive secretary
and associate general secretary in
personnel, programs, financial management
and financial development.
After his retirement in 1980, he started a
consulting firm to help nonprofit groups
with fundraising. The longtime Mason also
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