As the children and grandchildren of BYU-Hawaii alumnus and longtime Laie resident Leonard Joseph Peters talked about his life at his memorial service on Feb. 29, the running joke was that each person was their father’s and grandfather’s favorite.
Some claimed they were the favorite because they were the oldest or the youngest, dad bought them the most cars, and so on. Even the Laie Hawaii North Stake President Finau Hafoka got in on the joke saying at the services, “Oh how I wish I could claim I was Leonard Peters’ favorite something, but I am not.”
But daughter Mariaha Ah You explained the phenomena by saying her dad “made each grandchild feel like they were his favorite” as well as people who knew him.
Daughter Vernice Uyehara gave his eulogy and said, “I had no idea how much my dad was loved until people came to visit” the family after they heard of her father’s passing. “I will miss my dad, but I know he is just beyond the veil. I know I will see him again.”
Another daughter, Jaclyn Pasi, said, “I always knew that I had a cool dad,” but all the stories people have shared about her father, have confirmed it. “I saw my dad as a superman,” added son Vern Peters at the memorial services held at the Laie Hawaii North Stake Center.
Family and friends filled the chapel and the cultural hall, and Hafoka commented to the large audience, “I was told you can tell how good a man was by how many people come to his funeral.”
He jokingly added, “Please come to mine to make me look good too.”Peters served as a bishop twice, once the Mesepa Ward in Samoa and the second time in the Laie 9th Ward. In Laie, he worked at the Polynesian Cultural Center and Hawaii Reserves Inc., and was active in the community. He was born in Apia, Western Samoa, on April 12, 1948 to his parents, Patrick and Mariaha Peters.
He was the seventh out of 11 children, said Uyehara. His father, Patrick, traveled around Samoa overseeing the building of LDS chapels and their family learned the value of hard work running their family farm, she said.
Patrick Peters was the first stake president of Samoan descent in the island nation, said Max Purcell, who grew up in Samoa with Peters, is a counselor in the Laie Hawaii North Stake Presidency and spoke at the service.
Peters passed away on Feb. 20, 2016. He had diabetes and was on dialysis, but the family members said they know he is at peace now. He is survived by his wife of 40 years, Phyllis Ah Ching Peters, who is the secretary for the ICS Department at BYUH; his children, Vernice, Vern, Mariaha, Leonard Jr., and Jaclyn; and 17 grandchildren.
Peters served a LDS mission in Samoa when his father was also the mission president, said Uyehara. After his mission, met his wife Phyllis and proposed to her three weeks later.
They were married in December 1975. The couple then came to Laie to go to BYUH. After Peters graduated, the family returned to Samoa where he taught automotive repair at the LDS Church College of Western Samoa and also at American Samoa Community College, said Uyehara.
Then to improve the educational opportunities for their children, the family moved back to Laie in 1989, she said, where Peters worked at the PCC as the Maintenance manager and later retired from Hawaii Reserves Inc., where he was the Operations manager.
Peters’ children and grandchildren shared some of their favorite memories of “Papa” including his love for Diet Coke and musubi. Granddaughter Mia Pasi said her “loving and caring Papa…was so happy when he saw his family,” and when he had his diet soda and musubi from Sam’s Store.
The oldest granddaughter Jaclyn Ah You told a story about her Papa’s addiction to Diet Coke. He called her one day when she was in class at Kahuku High School, she said, so she excused herself and went outside to talk to him. He asked if she had a car and could get him a diet soda.
She said no she didn’t have a car or even her license with her. Her Papa then asked where her younger brother was, and she told him he was home from school already. He asked her to call the brother “to go get me a diet soda, but don’t tell Grandma.”
Jaclyn said she got off the phone, called Grandma to check if it really was okay, and then called her brother to complete the task. Later, she explained, her grandfather “called me to thank me for getting him the Diet Coke.”
Another grandson, Micah Uyehara Jr., said he was blessed to live with his grandparents and will miss Papa waiting on the porch for them to come home from school each day. He would talk to them about their day and give them money for treats from Sam’s Store.
“Instead of waiting for us on the front porch,” Micah said of his grandfather, “he is waiting for us in heaven.”Micah also talked about the Family Home Evenings the extended family held each week when “all the cousins came” to Grandpa and Grandma’s house. Having all the family there and eating cake and ice cream, he said, made Papa the happiest.
Son Leonard Peters Jr. talked about his dad putting up with him stealing the neighbors’ chickens while training to get faster for football. He played football for Kahuku High School, the University of Hawaii and for pro teams. “I always played as hard as I could - not caring if I got hurt. I always played hard for the name on the front of the jersey but more for the name one the back.”
Mariaha Ah You said, “We have heard countless stories about how my dad has impacted people’s lives.” One story she shared was when her father was a bishop and stopped to talk to a man on the street who was less active in church. “
He said, ‘Hey, stop what you are doing right now and come to church.’ He did,” she said, “and now that man works in the temple…his family so appreciated that.”Vern talked about a Christmas when he was a child and his dad let him pick out a toy car as one of his presents. His dad is a Ford guy, he said, but he is a Chevy guy – so he selected a little red, Chevy car.
When Christmas came, he opened all his presents, but the car wasn’t among them. Then he noticed the little boy next door was playing with a red Chevy in the dirt. When he asked his dad if the neighbor had his car, he said his father said, “Yes, but look how happy he is.” Vern said he saw that same boy years later in Utah.
He had been in and out of jail, but when he saw him, he asked Vern about his dad. The neighbor remembered the little red Chevy, and told Vern, “That was the best Christmas ever.”
Vern said his father would tell them a story every time he wanted to talk to them about something, and asked people to remember this story too.“I hope what you take away from this meeting is to love your family,” he said. “You never know when they will be asked to jump on the back of the truck,” he said, to be taken to heaven because now they are needed up there.