Donor Recognition

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Mona Elmore Honored at Heart of Gold

ARCS Honolulu members with Mona Elmore Mona Elmore, far right, and her late husband George Elmore were celebrated as the ARCS Foundation Honolulu Chapter’s Golden Hearts during the February 2013 Heart of Gold luncheon at the Outrigger Canoe Club. A former educator with a keen interest in science and discovery, Mona has generously sponsored Honolulu’s Scholar of the Year and Scientist of the Year awards for several years. Special guest speaker Gail Grabowski, professor of environmental studies at Chaminade University, struck a chord with the story of her personal ordeal with colon-rectal cancer. Refusing to be a victim of her cancer, she became an active participant in her recovery and provided valuable information to her doctors by applying the research-based approach she learned as a scientist to analysis of her own treatments.

Legacies: A Tale of Three Benefactors


Helen Jones Farrar	Maybelle F. Roth	Shelagh Scoville Kresser

HELEN JONES FARRAR was born in the early 1890s to a wealthy kama‘aina family (founders of the Bank of Hawai‘i, Hawaiian Trust Company and Palama Settlement) and educated at O‘ahu College. A pioneer, she majored in science at Smith and was one of the first women to obtain a driver's license on O‘ahu. She married R.J.H. Farrar and lived on O‘ahu and then Hawai‘i Island, where she observed construction of the original telescopes on Mauna Kea and grew fascinated by astronomy. With no children of her own, she was extremely fond of the young astronomers she met in addition to her nieces and nephews. Her nephew Russel Richards established the Helen Jones Farrar Award as a fitting memorial. The award goes to an ARCS Scholar in astronomy or tropical agriculture.

MAYBELLE FELKER ROTH was born in Bellingham, Washington, in 1898. She enjoyed camping and hiking with her family in the Cascade Mountains and earned a BS in home economics from Oregon State University. Following her husband’s death in 1927, she moved to Hilo and embarked on an around-the-world tour. She taught English in Asia and Spain and, after earning master’s degrees from UC Berkeley and the University of Hawai‘i, taught Spanish at UH. She studied in Mexico, authored A Tentative Three Year Secondary Course of Study in Spanish and contributed to purchase of books for the university. She traveled widely after retirement as associate professor in 1963 and was active in the Hawaiian Historical Society and Malacological Society. She became a vegetarian at age 92 and supported Dr. Terry Shintani's groundbreaking Hawai‘i Diet book project. Before her death in 1999 at age 101, she established an ARCS Award to support students engaged in studies related to conservation biology.

SHELAGH SCOVILLE KRESSER was born in Pasadena, California, in 1928 and graduated from Dominican College in San Rafael. An award winning writer, poet and playwright, she moved to Honolulu in 1950 and opened The Gallery, a prestigious art gallery in the Hilton Hawaiian Village. It showcased contemporary works by local artists and introduced her to husband Frederick Mosson Kresser, president of Pacific Construction Company, in whose memory she created an ARCS Scholar award in engineering or science. In addition to serving as ARCS Foundation Honolulu Chapter president 1988–1990, she headed local units of the National Society of Arts and Letters, National League of American Pen Women and English Speaking Union. She wrote a children’s book, The Chronicles of Fitkin Le Fraise, and Ulu's Dog, a collection of short stories, and, upon her death in 2014, was widely remembered for her “stunning beauty, graceful charm, fabulous sense of humor and unfailing generosity,”

Shooting for the Moon

Dr. Paul Lucey in labsuit

When I began research in planetary science as an undergraduate, I saw it as a tangible way to explore space and make meaningful contributions to that endeavor. As time passed, I have enjoyed helping many students do the same, and watch them become successful scientists.

– Dr. Paul Lucey, 1987 Honolulu ARCS Scholar and NASA Eugene Shoemaker Distinguished Scientist Medal recipient for lifetime achievement in the study of the Moon and other rocky planets. A professor in the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa's Hawai‘i Institute of Geophysics and Planetology, he has been instrumental in developing imaging spectrometers for NASA. His use of hyperspectral imagery to efficiently map lunar materials and quantitative modeling of near-infrared spectra have generated key insights regarding the composition of the lunar crust and interior. Read more

On Deep-Sea Oceanography

Dr. Amy Baco-Taylor onboard research ship

“Because most species in the deep sea are slow growing and long-lived, deep-sea species are actually more vulnerable to human impacts than many shallow-water ecosystems.”

– 1999 Honolulu ARCS Scholar Dr. Amy Baco-Taylor, explaining the importance of her research on deep sea ecosystems in a Q&A on the Florida State University website where she is now a professor in the Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Science. Read the profile

Dr. Mark Hixon on ARCS Scientist Honor

Dr. Mark Hixon, Photo by Chris Pala

"I am especially grateful that ARCS Honolulu appreciates the mentoring of graduate students, who are society’s future scientists during an era when science is increasingly under attack."

ARCS Honolulu Chapter named marine ecologist Dr. Mark Hixon its 2021 ARCS Scientist of the Year for his remarkable record of research, mentorship and public outreach. He is the Sidney and Erika Hsiao Endowed Chair in Marine Biology and chairs the Zoology Graduate Program at the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa. Photo by Chris Pala