Lonny Kaneko
Highline College held a memorial on May 3 for Lonny Kaneko, who died on March 30.
Kaneko, a Japanese American, was a poet, playwright, essayist, short-story writer, and, for 50 years, a teacher at Highline College in Des Moines, Wash. He was born to Nisei parents in 1939 in Seattle and spent three years in the Minidoka camp in Idaho during World War II.
The May 3 on-campus gathering celebrated Kaneko’s life and work, and Todd Kaneko read from some of his father’s work.
Memorial donations can be made to the Lonny Kaneko Fund, which supports writing awards and scholarships for Highline students.
I was lucky enough to have Mr. Kaneko for a writing class at Highline CC in the late 1970’s. I enjoyed his class very much, and, of course, it was the best writing class I ever had. What he taught served me well in the rest of my college career, and he gave me confidence in my creative writing that I still enjoy today. In addition, at the time I was just 20 years old and engaged to marry an Asian American man whose parents had been in the internment camps during World War II. He helped me understand that part of their life experience like no one else could have.
I will always be grateful for what he added to my life.