John Henry Felix, a Hawaiʻi community leader and the founding chair of Hawaiʻi Public Radio’s board of directors, has died. He was 94.
Felix served on the HPR board from 1979 until 1985 and hired the station’s first general manager, Cliff Eblen.
He saw the station originally established in the University of Hawaiʻi quarry, and on at least one occasion, personally helped to make payroll.
Felix served as chief of staff for William Quinn, Hawaiʻi's first state governor. He was later a Honolulu City Council member from 1987 to 2001, and was involved in multiple business and philanthropic activities.
In 2019, HPR named a transmitter on Lānaʻi in his honor: KJHF. You can hear those call letters at the top of every hour on HPR-1.
The Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported that Felix died of end-stage renal disease on Monday at an independent-living facility in Hawaiʻi Kai on Oʻahu.
