Ollie and my mother got together when I was about 11 years old. He was a musician living in California, but he came to Hawaii to play in a gig, and met my mother through a mutual friend. Ollie and I did not hit it off right away. He was a musician, and by no one’s standards was he a rough man, and that is what I was used to, and what I looked up to. Ollie and my mother got married and moved to Venice Beach California. I went there to spend a semester in high school, because I wanted to experience the Los Angeles boxing gyms, because I was trying to advance my boxing career, Even though I was still in high school. While living in their house in Venice Beach, Ollie set up a heavy bag, and made me some other equipment I could use while I was training, he also fixed up a Volkswagen bug so I could drive it to the gym in downtown Los Angeles. Ali would wake up some mornings and ride his bicycle on the boardwalk while I was doing my roadwork. Ollie was very supportive of me, and help me as much as he could. Ollie was very handy around the house, in fact he can pretty much build a house. The house they’ve bought in Venice Beach, they put in a bathroom, a balcony, and a bunch of other improvements that most people would call a contractor to do, my mother and all he did it themselves. He and my mother sold that house in Venice, and bought, fixed up, then sold about five more houses over the next 15 years. That was their main source of income, and they did very well added, plus they got to move around a lot. I could always go to Ollie, and he would treat me like a son. He was very laid back, smoked a lot of pot, but he always took care of business whether was fixing a car, or building a guest house, ali always had a lot of energy to get it done. He definitely broke the mold of a pot smoking musician, because he was one of the most “get it done” people that I knew. Another thing that I looked up to Ollie for was even when he was in his 80s and suffering from some lung ailments, he still have the discipline to get up, Get out into his practice room and practice his trumpet, much in the same way I practice my martial arts. Music to him, was like martial arts to me, and he was a very well respected musician and mentor too many people, and he helped to change many lives. Ali passed away a couple years ago, and I have always considered him my other father. He was the yin to my biological father’s yang…. I love you Ollie
