Comments on: Pioneering professor is first lady of limu

By: spirulina

spirulina — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 10:21:38 +0000

I wish Prof. Abbott all the best, I admire people who does so much good for the society.

By: Margot Schrire

Margot Schrire — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 22:09:14 +0000

Prof. Abbott’s legacy is growing!

UHAA just announced that she is the recipient of the 2011 UH Founders Alumni Association Lifetime Achievement Award. An award will be presented to her family May 12 at the Sheraton Waikiki during the Distinguished Alumni Awards Dinner UHalumni.org/daa

More good news –
Thanks to the outpouring of generosity, $28,000 has been raised in support of the Abbott Award for Graduate Research. The Dept. of Botany established this fund to honor Prof. Abbott by supporting graduate research in Hawaiian ethnobotany and marine botany. A minimum of $35,000 is needed to establish an endowment – so we are just $7,000 away for creating a legacy that will support graduate research for many years to come!

By: Dorothy Hall

Dorothy Hall — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 01:05:19 +0000

I had the pleasure of studying ethnobotany of Hawai’i with professor Abbott in my first semester at UH, fall 1977. She was an excellent teacher, and allowed me to miss a mid-term in order to travel to another island on the day it was scheduled. She was so warm-hearted to realize that it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for me, and that I could always take the test later! She inspired me to research a paper on the production of tapa cloth, comparing methods in Tonga and Hawai’i. The many hours I spent in the Bishop Museum and the East-West collection at UH were so rewarding in that pre-computer era. I only regret that I did not get to tell her how much it meant to me to have known her, but now I must pass it on to the others who felt likewise.

By: Campus Remembers 'First Lady of Limu' Isabella Abbott | News@UH

Campus Remembers 'First Lady of Limu' Isabella Abbott | News@UH — Sat, 13 Nov 2010 02:30:19 +0000

[...] Posted on | November 12, 2010 | No Comments [...]

By: Clifford Lum

Clifford Lum — Sat, 30 Oct 2010 20:13:20 +0000

Aloha Kakou, I enjoyed your article on the late Dr Isabella Abbott in Nov.’10 Malamalama. 34 yrs. ago, thankfully, my choice to take a course for fun/out of curiosity resulted in Prof. Isabella lecturing us involved in Ethonobotony 105. Your article jarred my memory that she had recently returned to Hawaii from her employment at Stanford U. The course graciously exceeded all my expectations. I realize your focus of Dr. Abbott’s interview with your writer(magazine) was on algae/limu, an item which we obtained important info. as students, but for me the application of the knowledge and skills transmitted from Dr. Isabella is incorporated, I with confidence can claim, in how I live. Vocational activities resulting attending U. of Hawaii at Manoa, include working in business and currently as an educator in the DOE. A deeper appreciation for residing in Hawaii and in general, occupying anyplace on earth resulted in at least some of us, from what Dr. Abbott taught about and how people meet their needs with trees,and other plant/flora forms in our enviornment realized and reinforced by proximal flora, travelling forest trails and moving about the ocean. Acclamations and honors-involving careers at Stanford and then UH, NOAA, having her name as part of scientfic naming of plants to name a few, warranted her “Living Treasure In Hawaii” title. In closing, please indulge me for writing that whenever some occurrence, wording or presentation connects me having a college education, the image of Dr. Isabella’s class lecturing is what comes to mind for me initially most often. aloha, Cliff

By: Cheryl Ernst

Cheryl Ernst — Sat, 30 Oct 2010 00:58:09 +0000

Mālamalama was saddened to learn of the death last night of Isabella Abbott. Our condolences to her family, students and colleagues.

Information about services will be provided when it become available.

By: Atete E. Holbrook

Atete E. Holbrook — Sun, 24 Oct 2010 01:26:02 +0000

Dear Isabella,
Pe hea oe? Olele Hawaii i ke wale no au. But I am learning. My father is Tahitian/Hawaiian, American Indian. Mother Italian, that’s it. But I grew up on Kauai, Tahiti and Big Island.
I think you are wonderful! I am so keen on re-writing our Hawaiian language to be more authentic, like the old chants my great grandmothers left me. I think we should pay more attention to the plants of the sea and their applications to all areas of health. My mother is 89 and I take care of her with natural foods and vitamins. She walks well, and sees well. I am also interested in saving all the coconuts for the people of Maui to eat. It is our staple diet. I want to push the gov. into putting nets under all the coconuts instead of killing this food. I have worked with Kenneth P. Emory and the state in the late 70′s to map and protect ancient sites on the Big Island. He was very inspirational and so are you. I would very much like to speak with you to hear the way your parents spoke Hawaiian. I speak several languages and I believe our young people are having an identity crisis due to loosing Hawaiian language. I spoke briefly on channel 54 Maui about “Bringing Hawaii back to itself.” I listed an accelerated learning program for Hawaiian language, Food (coconut milk in schools),new land division, and better water use, letting our waterfalls flow. I have many practical solutions,learned through my travels in the Pacific/Australia regions. I am a graduate of U.H.M and U.H.H. I think it is wonderful your work with the University and it is a great school as they supported my travels to Nihoa to prove my theory. Turns out someone else took credit for my theory, on day I’ll let that cat out of the bag. However, my focus is helping my people, and preserving the good ol’ ways. It would be a great honor to meet you and hear Hawaiian spoken as it was before it got written up by the missionaries. I have some old chants in ancient Hawaiian from my family and they are a treasure to me. I have been struggling with this and not getting any help with writing old Hawaiian. It is deeply saddening to know that so few pure Hawaiian people are left, well below extinction. To say the Hawaiian people are extinct is true, but awful. But we can say the people of Hawaii are Hawaiians, just made up many cultures. What makes us one is our LANGUAGE. I feel strongly that we must now take Hawaiian language out of the classroom. What do you think? Would you be willing to help me translate a beautiful short story about Maui into an old dialect of Hawaiian?
Atete Melelani Punahele Tanepuni Akapanuhi Akahi E. Holbrook is my full name chant.

By: Matthew Sharritt

Matthew Sharritt — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 13:52:45 +0000

I developed a related website with Dr. Cynthia Hunter (Looking at Limu) that might be of interest: http://manoa.hawaii.edu/limu/

Great story!