Death date: Dec 6, 2021
Dean Genshi Otani, 65, of Hilo, died December 6, 2021 at Hawaii Care Choices. Born in Hilo, he was formerly employed at Farmers Exchange, Sunida’s, Pacific Air, HPA as security, was a school custodian, and he operated a pawn shop. Read Obituary
Aloha,
Was so sad to hear of Dean's passing. I'll never forget his engaging smile and love of fun. We had many laughs together. I was lucky to know him and share in his joys. Dean used to stop by at Christmas time and bring us some goodies. My sincerest condolences to Merle and the Otani family. I'm sure Dean is smiling down on all in Hilo town.
Linda Damas Kelley
Dean was the first person I met who quickly became a good friend when I moved to Hilo 33 year ago. At that time he ws working as a security guard at the Hilo airport. Dean was an amazing person in many ways. He had a creative inventive mind and often came up with ideas for inventions which he would describe to me. He/we never produced any of them, mainly for lack of money to make prototypes, but it was fun thinking about them.
Dean had several true stories that he wrote down and shared with me. Most of them were spooky obake kinds of stories, Although one that I remember was about him and a friend of his rescuing a huge Logger Head turtle that had been washed up into a deep crack quite a ways on shore by a big wave along the ocean side cliffy area of Puna. Dean said the turtle’s head was as big as a basketball with huge eyes. Dean and his friend crawled down into the crack beneath the turtle to try and boost it up and out. They tried 3 times, but couldn’t raise the turtle high enough because of their footing and it’s weight of close to a couple hundred pounds. Each time they pushed it up as far as they could they were unable to raise it higher without changing their footing and would have to let the turtle drop back down to its original wedged position. On their 4th try with the turtle raised as far up as they could, they were about to give up when the turtle extended all four flippers against the sides of the crack and held itself there while Dean and his friend were able to get a higher up footing. They pushed the turtle up and out. The turtle crawled down to the water and swam out to a rocky spit that paralleled the shore and then turned to swim out another few hundred feet to the end of the rocky spit and the open ocean. Dean and his friend expected the turtle to disappear into the water. The turtle turned around and swam back to where they were standing and blew a huge spray of water into the air in front of them, turned around, and swam back to the open ocean and out to sea.
Dean was an amazing singer and could sound just like Elvis Presley. He could hit the high notes, had an excellent sense of pitch, a perfect sense of rhythm and phrasing, and with his singing, wowed the patrons of the bar we often went to back then for a few beers.
I occasionally helped him with paperwork and recommendations for job applications over the many years. He helped me with his friendship, his generosity, his impish sense of humor and our many enjoyable collaborations, conversations and laughs together.
Dean was a true friend. I will miss him.
Jay Kelley, Hilo
