Harry Hideo Matsuno

Harry was born on April 13, 1931 to Yoshitaro and Mary Matsuno in Cheyenne, Wyoming which is why he liked to say that he was “Cheyennnese”. He grew up in Platteville, Colorado and was the quarterback of his football team, captain of his basketball team and of course, valedictorian of his graduating class. After high school, he enlisted in the Army and began his career in the service in Military Intelligence. As part of his training, he went to language school where he became fluent in Japanese.

He was stationed in Okinawa where he met his future wife, Hiro at a Halloween party. After a whirlwind courtship, they married and subsequently had two children, Steven and Naomi. Harry’s assignments took their family to Colorado, Alabama, Okinawa, California, back to Colorado and eventually to Hawaii where the family happily settled.

During his military career, he served in the Korean War, and four tours in Vietnam where he received a Bronze Star for his meritorious achievements as well as many other awards and accolades.

After he retired from the military, he joined Wackenhut Security and after several years, he started his own company where he conducted polygraph examinations. He worked at Goodenow Associates then to Safeguard Services where he served as President. When Securitas purchased the company years later, he stayed on with the company as a consultant. He was a member of HEA for many years and religiously attended every meeting and event.

This enabled him to take his wife Hiro on their many trips to Las Vegas where he happily played keno and the slots. He also found the time to write his memoirs which his family has enjoyed reading as we knew little about what he did in the military.

He finally retired when he was 88 years old. When asked why he didn’t retire sooner, he said that he enjoyed spending time his colleagues and it kept him out of mom’s hair at home.

His biggest joy was spending time with his family.

He attended every game and event, made gourmet dinners at weekly family get togethers. He spent hours rocking his grandchildren to sleep when they were infants to tea parties and every major life event thereafter. He also made sure that his grandchildren’s lives were well documented through the many pictures that he took.

Harry took up the cool hobby of baking rum cakes for friends and family to enjoy. He baked so many rum cakes that he actually started numbering them. We lost count but a conservative estimate is that he baked over 6,000 cakes. This earned him a spot in the newspaper and subsequent recipe books. He gladly shared his recipe to anyone who asked for it.

Harry is greatly loved and will be missed by his family and friends. He is survived by his wife Hiro, son Steven and daughter-in-law Yoko, daughter Naomi and son-in-law Irby, grand-daughters Alexis and Anika, great-granddaughter Alena.

He is predeceased by his parents (Yoshitaro and Mary) and sister, Doris.

Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.BorthwickOahu.com for the Matsuno family.