In praise of one of the island’s unsung heroes, the Kaua’i County Council has asked a favor of the state Department of Hawaiian Homelands. The council passed a resolution requesting that the Anahola Basketball Court, near Anahola Village, be named
In praise of one of the island’s unsung heroes, the Kaua’i County Council has asked a favor of the state Department of Hawaiian Homelands.
The council passed a resolution requesting that the Anahola Basketball Court, near Anahola Village, be named in honor of Dr. Richard “Mickey” McCleery.
That decision is up to DHHL.
The 78-year-old Ph.D. came to Kaua’i 36 years ago, and almost since that day has taken care of the basketball court near his house. He landscapes the court, changes the nets and rims at his expense, and repaints the lines on the court.
“I have seen him clean, squeegee, paint the basketball court, buy and put up nets and rims with his ladder and tools, climb to the top of the light pole to replace bulbs,” said Steve Backinoff, one of his admirers.
McCleery also founded an alternative school in Kapa’a and worked for the state Department of Education, teaching high school dropouts.
Instead of graduating two or three students per year as previous programs did, McCleery began graduating between 20 and 30 students annually.
“The test scores of my graduates was not only vastly higher than those who attended night schools, but vastly higher, on average, than those who attended each of our three high schools,” McCleery said.
His care for local youths doesn’t stop with scholarly pursuits. “When some of the high school players that had been playing pickup (basketball) in Anahola were playing in school, he not only got out to cheer and watch them but got funds together to sponsor an ad in the program,” Backinoff stated.
According to players at the Anahola court, McCleery, who still plays basketball himself (friends who attended his council tribute June 28 said he had been out on the Anahola court just the day before), also made it known that his shed next door to the court was open and full of loaner basketballs marked “ours.”
McCleery left northern Ohio while still a teenager. He worked on farms, then joined the Army at 17. He later witnessed the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor.
After earning his high school GED, McCleery earned a bachelor degree from the University of Hawai’i and a masters from Syracuse University in New York.
Not content with two degrees, McCleery earned a Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina.
He taught at Michigan State and Antioch University before coming to Kaua’i on sabbatical. He and his wife Althea fell in love with the island and stayed. They have lived in Anahola since 1965.
Staff writer Dennis Wilken can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 252) and mailto:dwilken@pulitzer.net
