Candle and photo remember Gus and Anna Hochuli at the Augustine donor reception (Photo courtesy of Island Digital Imaging)
Gus and Anna Hochuli were dedicated parishioners of Hilo’s St Joseph Church and staunch advocates of Catholic education. Upon their deaths, they left $1 million with the Augustine Educational Foundation to provide scholarships for students at St Joseph School in Hilo. Here is their story, submitted by the Augustine Foundation.
Gustav Hochuli, a kind, gentle, patient and most courteous man, was born in Switzerland. A formally trained chef, he came to the United States in 1931 and was quickly hired by the Hershey Estate in Hershey, Penn., where he gained fame for his desserts and pastries. He joined the military during World War II and after the war moved to California.
Anna Emard was born in 1914 on a dairy farm in eastern Ontario, Canada, the youngest of 14 children. Growing up on a family farm gave her a strong work ethic and even a stronger will. At 17, as the Great Depression loomed, she earned her teaching certificate and left home to teach in a one-room schoolhouse 300 miles away. When the war broke out in 1941, she took a job in a factory near Detroit hand-sewing fabric onto the spruce frames of the famed Mosquito bombers. Anna was later promoted to inspector of the bombers’ electrical systems.
Seeking a fresh start after the war, Anna moved to Santa Barbara, Calif. Still new to the city, she approached a young man on the street to ask for directions. The man was Gus. The rest is history.
They wed in 1947 and worked in five-star hotels in southern California, he as a chef and she in the restaurants. Widely traveled, they retired in Hilo in 1984.
They cherished Hilo’s serenity and relaxed manner. He would walk a mile to daily noon Mass at St. Joseph Church where she served as a eucharistic minister. She also helped out in the parish thrift shop and in Hilo Hospital’s wheelchair repair shop. The Salvation Army gave her an award for her volunteer work in its “Sally Shop.”
Gus and Anna invested wisely and lived modestly and prudently, making generous donations every year to St. Joseph Parish School for tuition assistance. Though not blessed with children of their own, it was their dream and desire that future generations of Catholic students at St. Joseph School benefit from their estate.
After Gus died in 2001, Anna chose the Augustine Educational Foundation to be the beneficiary of their estate. Anna died on Dec. 20, 2012. Their first memorial scholarships were awarded this year.