More than 36 years after Jim Cunningham was rescued while swimming alone in Kalapaki Bay and possibly drowning, he and his family plan to fly to Kaua‘i this December to meet with his rescuer and thank him personally. Cunningham, a
More than 36 years after Jim Cunningham was rescued while swimming alone in Kalapaki Bay and possibly drowning, he and his family plan to fly to Kaua‘i this December to meet with his rescuer and thank him personally.
Cunningham, a Sonoma, Calif.
resident who is now in his early 80s, will be meeting with Feodor “Fefe” Matsuda, now in his early 50s and a service manager for Kauai Toyota.
“He wants a private party at the beach (in front of the Kaua‘i Marriott Resort & Beach Club), and he wants a pig (cooked) in the ground,” Matsuda said. “We going to try (to make Cunningham’s request a reality.” From what he was told, Matsuda said Cunningham will be accompanied by his daughter, Helena Cunningham of El Dorado Hills, Calif., and her family.
Helena Cunningham has visited Kaua‘i numerous times in the past, and on her last visit, this summer, she was able to find Matsuda with the help of folks at the Marriott, where she and her family stayed.
She got Matsuda’s telephone number and, through a conversation, Cunningham became convinced Matsuda was the one who rescued him so many years ago.
Matsuda said he and his family also plan to attend the gathering.
The meeting, when it occurs, will be the first time the two men have seen each other since the rescue in 1968.
At that time, Cunningham, then 47 years old, was a U.S.
merchant marine who worked aboard a ship at Nawiliwili Harbor.
After work near sundown one day, Cunningham, an avid swimmer, decided to go for a swim.
Before he realized it, strong currents took him past the mouth of the bay and out to the open ocean.
Nonetheless, he was determined to make it back to shore, deciding to relax and let the current weaken before swimming back to shore.
Cunningham waded in water at the northern end of Kalapaki Bay, and had he gotten close to shore, rip currents could have swept him out to sea.
Matsuda, then a teen-age employee at the old Kauai Surf Hotel (now the Kaua‘i Marriott), was surfing in the same area where Cunningham was.
Matsuda saw Cunningham in distress, swam over to him on his surfboard, and offered help.
The two then paddled safely back to shore.
