Working on the “In Memoriam” article for the September Daffodil Journal, I noted the name of Sheldon Lee Mun Kwai “Hamoa” Tom, age 68, of Honolulu. Nancy googled his obituary, which noted that he was a retired school teacher with the Hawaii Dept. of Education.
Why would soeone from a climate where I didn’t think there was enough cool weather to grow daffodils join our Society as a Life Member?
The missing fact is the year that he joined. Did he travel to the U.S. as a teacher, see daffodils, and join as a Life member at the original very inexpensive rates?
Or did he come to the ADS to the 2000 Portland convention or the one in Murphys in 2008? I would just like to know…
Loyce McKenzie
Think Narcissus, not daffodils. As in Chinese Sacred Lily. Mr. Tom wrote an article for the December 1981 Daffodil Journal on “Honolulu’s 33rd Narcissus Festival and the Chinese Sacred Lily.” I don’t know when he joined ADS, but surely a long time ago.
Mary Lou
Mary Lou Gripshover has dedicated herself to maintaining a history of daffodils and the people involved in them. She has added hundreds of documents to Dafflibrary.org which provides a history about daffodils and the people involved through out the world.
As an ADS member, I found “SHELDON L. TOM” by searching in Dafflibrary’s search panel on the right side of the site.
He wrote an article called “HONOLULU’S 33rd NARCISSUS FESTIVAL AND THE
CHINESE SACRED LILY” which was published in the December 1981 ADS Journal pages 75 – 77.
To read the article, do the Dafflibrary search or click this link http://dafflibrary.org/wp-content/uploads/1981_Dec_ADS_Journal1.pdf
He did not attend the Portland 2000 convention, but he did send us some flyers about carving narcissus bulbs (yes, that’s an art form) to distribute at the convention.