Subject: Oh Captain, my Captain...Lorin Leads Loftier Hike
Sat, 2 Oct 2010 07:21:19 -1000
From: Kenneth Kupchak 


At approximately 11:30a.m. , October 1, 2010, Lorin Gill set off on yet another a grand adventure.

Turning from his lofty perch, Lorin took a last look at our beloved Koolau and set out, as always, to prepare the trail for us to follow. 

For years, as he won accolades from many groups, Lorin has been, much to his Island-like embarrassment,  eulogized and extolled up one side and down the other. And in each case, superlatives dominated the presentations, but, yet, always seemed to be understatements.  For most of my adult life and, I suspect, for many of your lives, Lorin was  Sensi extraordinaire.  Hawaii’s and the World’s natural setting, including our place in the scheme of things, would come alive under his rigorous tutelage.

In Lorin’s World, everything endemic and, grudgingly, a few things indigenous, were welcome. It was an orderly World. But auwe to the out of place exotic, such as the G.D. Lousy Closter’s Curse, Clidemia Hirta. His teachings would spark our imaginations and infect our perceptions. And through you and his many other disciples, hundreds of minds were successfully pollinated; some hybridized and “The Word Of Gill” spread far and wide and it was good. On the “Seventh Day” , we did not rest, we hiked!

And Lorin’s parting words, as he trekked out of sight up the Ridge, where the Kaehu swirls just on the other side, but never out of mind, were “Keep on hiking, if you fall do not grab the endemics, and I’ll see you on the other side where we will continue the hike together!!”