Thurston Twigg-Smith

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Thurston Twigg-Smith a fifth generation Hawaiʻi native, was born in 1921 in Honolulu, Hawaiʻi. He is the son of William and Margaret Thurston Twigg-Smith and the great-great grandson of Asa and Lucy Goodale Thurston who were pioneer missionaries to the Islands of Hawaii, and the grandson of Lorrin A. Thurston, who played a key role in the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom. His father was an artist and a musician who supported his family as an illustrator at the Hawaiian Sugar Planters' Association.

Twigg-Smith grew up in the lower Nuʻuanu area on Bates Street, in a house his father built on his Grandfather Lorrin's property. At the time, L.A. Thurston was publisher of The Advertiser.

Twigg-Smith, his brother David and sister Barbara attended Lincoln and Kapalama elementary schools. Twigg-Smith went on to Roosevelt for junior high and entered Punahou in the 10th grade on a scholarship.

After graduating from Punahou School in 1938 (he now has a building named after him in the Case Middle School at Punahou School) and Yale University in 1942, Twigg-Smith served in the armed forces during World War II in Europe. He served in five campaigns. He attained the rank of captain in the field artillery and was awarded the Bronze Star. Returning to Hawai'i in December, 1945, he started work at The Honolulu Advertiser in February, 1946 and as a major, started the 483rd Field Artillery battalion in the Hawaiʻi National Guard. He left the guard in 1954 as a lieutenant colonel to concentrate on his then duties as managing editor of the newspaper. In 1961 he took control of the financially ailing paper with the help of outside investors and by 1993 had turned it into a solid and profitable operation which he was able to sell to a regional subsidiary of the Gannett Company for $250 million.

A biography on the web site "Hawaiʻi Matters", ^[1] states that "Twigg-Smith has been a major supporter of non-profit service organizations and of the arts and in 1997 was named Hawaiʻi's Philanthropist of the Year." The Yale website notes, ""Thurston Twigg-Smith has long been an enthusiastic patron of both artists and art museums," says Susan Vogel, the Henry J. Heinz II Director of the gallery. "Since 1991, when he joined the Yale Art Gallery's governing board, he has given us 38 important contemporary works, among them such masterpieces as Diebenkorn's 'Ocean Park No. 24' and Wayne Thiebaud's 'Drink Syrups.' And 80 more are promised. It gives us great pleasure to share with our visitors the spirited and often witty works of art that have charmed this collector's 'Hawaiian Eye.'""^[2]

[edit] Opposition to Hawaiian sovereignty

In the 1990s, Twigg-Smith began taking an active role in opposing the Hawaiian sovereignty movement, writing a book, Hawaiian Sovereignty: Do the Facts Matter? in 1994. He funds several programs that advocate against a sovereign Hawaiian nation and race-based policies in Hawaiʻi.