Anne (Matilda) Rowehl

Heaven welcomed its newest troublemaker when (Matilda) Anne Rowehl breathed her last on June 10, 2024. Anne had just relocated to Cleveland, Ohio with her husband Roger, to embark on new adventures in assisted living. But she fell ill about a week after arriving and took her leave four days later, in peace and comfort at Hospice of the Western Reserve, under the loving care of her eldest daughter, Wendy.

Born on Valentine’s Day, 1940, in Albany, Georgia, to John and Wynelle Milward, Anne early developed the rich imagination typical of an only child, which fueled her lifelong love of telling stories, to the delight of her family and friends. In 1957, at a local swimming hole, she spied a handsome and strapping young Marine who she dared to hope might be her ticket out of small-town life in the South. That he agreed to a first date at her church helped seal the deal. On New Year’s Eve 1957, still six weeks shy of her 18th birthday, and a long way indeed from the South, Anne married Roger Rowehl in Port Chester, New York, near where Roger had grown up on Long Island.

The early years of their marriage saw the couple first in New York, where Anne modeled for a furrier in the city while Roger worked on his family’s farm, and then back in Georgia. When Roger re-enlisted in the military in 1963, Anne gamely took on the role of Navy Wife, with two toddlers (Wendy and John) in tow. Shortly after child number three (Alice) was born in 1964, the young family of five crammed into a Ford Fairlane convertible — along with the family dog, Sam, a lovable-but-dumber-than-dirt boxer — for the move from Virginia Beach to Charleston, South Carolina, where Roger would take up his first post as a submariner, on the USS Woodrow Wilson. Anne liked to tell the story that to calm her nerves after the harrowing trip, she downed the last two tranquilizers prescribed for the dog. (As with many of her stories, the facts may have been embellished.)

Navy life next took the Rowehls to Newport News, Virgina, and then, in 1969, to Hawaiʻi. When she first set foot on the tarmac in Honolulu, in the middle of the night, Anne reported having the very strong feeling that she was returning home, to a place she’d been before. And thus began an enchantment with all things Hawaiian that animated the rest of her life. During that first tour in Hawaiʻi, child number four, (Paul) Andrew, joined the family, via adoption from the Standing Rock Indian Reservation in the Dakotas.

In 1971, the Navy sent the family of six back to Virginia Beach for a two-year stint, only to move them back to Hawaiʻi two years later. It was then that Anne took the first steps toward her career as a registered nurse. She, Wendy, and John commuted to school together — they to private high schools in Honolulu, she to the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. As a nurse, Anne specialized in Labor & Delivery and quickly rose through the ranks to become a nurse manager (which she found she did not enjoy nearly as much as direct patient care).

After Roger retired from the Navy, Anne, Roger, and the two younger children moved to Santa Maria, California. There Anne became the founding director of a freestanding birth center, one of the first of its kind, and balanced her flourishing career with active participation in the community, especially at Grace Lutheran Church. But she always felt the pull of Hawaiʻi. And when Alice decided to settle on Maui after college, Anne and Roger moved back to the islands in 1996, settling into an ʻohana (in-law cottage) next to Alice’s house that Roger helped build.

Back in the home of her heart, Anne filled her life with new work and new friends. She became a nurse with Hospice Maui, eventually moving to the position of Volunteer Coordinator. She often remarked that hospice work felt like the perfect bookend to her earlier focus on birth and the beginning of life. With her encouragement, Roger himself became a hospice volunteer. The two of them were quite active at Keawalaʻi Congregational Church, in Mākena, where they both sang in the choir and served in positions of leadership. They also enjoyed singing with Nā Leo Lani o Maui, a community choir under the direction of Kumu Hula Uluwehi Guerrero and Gale Wisehart. Despite being very busy in their daily lives, Anne and Roger found time to travel the world, including annual summer visits to Cleveland and to Glimmerglass Opera in Cooperstown, New York. But probably their favorite activity was doting on their children and grandchildren, and bragging to friends about all of their accomplishments.

Anne was universally cherished for her warmth, compassion, intelligence, and (often irreverent) sense of humor. Though she left the South, she retained a distinctly Southern style of hospitality and commitment to friendship wherever life took her. Her family and friends will miss her formidable presence in our lives, but we rest comforted in the knowledge that hers was a life truly well lived.

Anne is survived by Roger, her husband of 66 years, daughter Wendy (Dave Miano), son John, daughter Alice (Joe McDermott), and son Andrew (Erica Mooney), as well as grandchildren Sarah Miano, Annie Miano (Charlie Mosbrook), Matthew Vanni, Jessica Vanni, Grady McDermott, Shannon McDermott, Jacob Frost, and Tatyana Matilda Rowehl.

A celebration of life will be held on Maui at a date yet to be determined. Those so inclined are invited to make a gift in Anne’s memory to Hospice Maui.