Deacon Hiram Haupu, right, assists Bishop Larry Silva at the 150th anniversary celebration of St. Joseph Church in Kaupo, Maui, in 2012. (HCH file photo | Darlene Dela Cruz)
“Sometimes our prayers might change the situation and sometimes our prayers just change us.”
Maui Deacon Hiram Haupu wrote those words in his pocket calendar shortly before he died at his Wailuku home on Sept. 13. His wife Elaine, who later found the sentence among Hiram’s health notes, considers it to be her deacon husband’s last piece of advice — a final homily from a gentle man of few words, who spoke from the heart and from his own experience.
Hiram Bernard Haupu was 63 and a deacon on the Valley Isle for 14 years.
Elaine Haupu said that her husband’s decision to become a deacon was a response to a literal, seemingly audible, summons he received about 20 years ago at his parents’ house.
“We were at his mom and dad’s house when he heard a voice tell him, ‘Son, come,’” she said.
After coming to the realization that his father had not said anything, “he took that as the Lord speaking to him,” Elaine said.
The call came while the couple was deeply involved with the Catholic charismatic movement and active in their parish.
Haupu was one of a diocesan class of 18 ordained in 2001. Bishop Francis X. DiLorenzo ordained him and three other Maui deacons — Lawrence Franco, Stephen Maglente and Cornelio Pulido — at St. Anthony Church, Wailuku, on July 13 of that year.
As a deacon, Haupu prepared couples for marriage, did baptismal instruction, preached, planned liturgies and visited prisoners at the Maui Community Correctional Center.
The deacon reflected on his prison ministry in a 2004 Hawaii Catholic Herald interview.
“I realized that it is not you going in, it is Jesus going in and doing that ministry,” he said. “We are doing it for the Lord.”
Haupu said prison ministry taught him to be more compassionate. He learned to listen to the men and their stories. He saw hearts change.
His pastor, Marianist Father Roland Bunda, who accompanied him on the prison visits, said Haupu was “very good with prisoners, a low-key guy, real committed.”
Regarding his preaching style, Father Bunda said the deacon was “very gentle and calm.”
“He took his homilies very seriously,” the pastor said, adding that he had the sense Hiram wrote them with his wife.
Elaine confirmed that.
“We worked on sermons together, smoothing them out,” she said, always praying for “a lot of guidance from the Holy Spirit.”
“He was quiet and a man of few words,” Elaine said, “straightforward and honest, compassionate and very humble.”
Fellow Maui deacon Stephen Maglente, who served with Hiram at St. Anthony, called his companion in ministry “a man of prayer.”
“The spirituality of Hiram was always praying for others,” Maglente said.
He said Haupu, though “quiet” and “reserved,” was particularly drawn to prison ministry. Maglente said that Haupu would tell the inmates that if circumstances were different, the situation could easily have been reversed, and he would have been the one behind bars.
Maglente said that he and Haupu had discussed the possibility of pursuing the diaconate for years before they actually signed up.
“He loved serving the church,” Maglente said.
Haupu was born in Hana, Maui, on Feb. 22, 1952, the oldest son of 13 children of Harold and Mary Haupu. He is three-quarters native Hawaiian and a fourth Filipino.
He was a former Eagle Scout and a graduate of St. Anthony High School in Wailuku where he played football. He joined the U.S. Air Force and was transferred to Aviano Air Base in northeastern Italy, where he served as a staff sergeant and was also a defensive tackle on the Aviano Base semi-pro football team.
It was in Aviano that he met his wife, a native of Weaton, Ill., who was assigned at the air base at the same time. They married in Italy on Sept. 24, 1976, and would have celebrated their 39th wedding anniversary this week.
Haupu retired in March 2014 after 20 years in building maintenance with the State of Hawaii airport division at the Kahului Airport.
Haupu’s funeral Mass is Sept. 25, 11 a.m., at St. Anthony Church, Wailuku. His burial follows at Garden of Meditation, Maui Memorial Park. A reception after the burial will be in Marianne Hall at St. Anthony Parish.
Haupu is survived by his wife Elaine, his father Harold Haupu; his siblings, Harold “Chey” (Gail “Kuuipo”) Haupu Jr., Marian “Nona” Haupu, Hendrick “Tano” (Vannassa) Haupu, Hymie (Berna) Haupu, Herman “Butch” (Carol) Haupu, Hank (Andrea “Honey-Girl”) Haupu Sr., Miriam “Mitch” (Gilbert) Rebolledo, Hugh “Bobby” (Donlyn) Haupu, Hilary (Lisa) Haupu, Ronald (Chris) Haupu, Alohalani Haupu, Hanalei Haupu, and numerous nieces and nephews.
He is pre-deceased by his mother Mary N. Haupu and brother Henry Haupu.
