• Family Married to the former Lucia Arzadon for 60 years. A son, Adelino Jr., lives in Colorado Springs, Colo.; daughter Delia Valentin lives in Wailua; grandson Mark Valentin is radio personality on KQNG. • Interests Church, volunteerism, travel. He
• Family Married to the former Lucia Arzadon for 60 years. A son, Adelino Jr., lives in Colorado Springs, Colo.; daughter Delia Valentin lives in Wailua; grandson Mark Valentin is radio personality on KQNG.
• Interests Church, volunteerism, travel. He and his wife had been national American Red Cross disaster volunteers, and in that capacity traveled to Guam and, most recently, Louisiana, to help flood victims. But he had to retire because of illness. She is still a volunteer. They drive each Sunday to Kekaha and Kaumakani to worship at the West Kauai United Methodist Church. Their last trip together was a cruise to South America.
• Employment Retired twice from Hawaiian Dredging.
Worked for the company on O‘ahu, Guam, Johnston, Midway, Kwajalein, Thailand.
• What do you like about living on Kaua‘i? “The slow pace.
It’s quiet.” His wife is a Kaua‘i native, and she suggested they retire on this island, said Valentin, 84. He didn’t fight her suggestion. “I always have the last word in an argument with my wife: ‘yes, dear.’”
• What is one thing you would change about the island? “Nothing. I like it just the way it is, especially how the aloha spirit is manifested, 24 hours a day, eight days a week. Kaua‘i is a beautiful place.”
• What do you like about The Garden Island? “I’ve been an avid journalism student since I was in eighth grade,” when he was editor of Washington Hilites, the student newspaper of O‘ahu’s Washington Intermediate School. He enjoys calling attention to mistakes and interesting placement of stories, like how one day on the FYI page (A2) the News of the Weird was placed immediately above the County Council agenda, and it appeared that the two were connected. “I am an avid reader of The Garden Island. I especially love to read what’s happening on the editorial page. I am a faithful reader of The Garden Island news. I think you made some effective changes when you broke it up” into sections, he said of the recent redesign.
The Garden Island is “a journalistic effort that continues to improve.” Valentin was class president of McKinley High School’s Class of 1938, which had 1,288 members, and was president of the sophomore class at the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa in 1946, when he enlisted to serve in the armed forces during World War II but was turned down because he was not a U.S. citizen.
He did join the Naval Civilian Volunteer Force.
