Thurston Twigg-Smith (1921-2016) *94

was an American businessman and philanthropist from Hawaii. Twigg-Smith was a fifth-generation Hawaii resident. He was born in 1921 in Honolulu, Hawaii, the son of William and Margaret Thurston Twigg-Smith (1895–1931). He was the 2xgreat-grandson of two pioneer missionary couples: Asa and Lucy Goodale Thurston and Lorrin Andrews and his wife. He was the grandson of Lorrin A. Thurston, who played a key role in the 1893 overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom. His father William was an artist and a musician, who supported his family as an illustrator at the Hawaiian Sugar Planters' Association.

Twigg-Smith grew up in the lower Nuʻuanu Valley on Bates Street, in a house his father built on his grandfather Lorrin's property. At the time, L.A. Thurston was publisher of the Honolulu Advertiser.

Twigg-Smith, his brother David, and sister Barbara attended Lincoln and Kapalama elementary schools. Twigg-Smith went on to President Theodore Roosevelt High School for junior high and entered Punahou School in the 10th grade on a scholarship.

He graduated from Punahou School in 1938 and earned a mechanical engineering degree from Yale University in 1942. Twigg-Smith served in the armed forces during World War II in Europe in five campaigns. He attained the rank of captain in the field artillery and was awarded the Bronze Star.

Returning to Hawaii in December 1945, he started work at the Honolulu Advertiser in February 1946. As a major, he started the 483rd Field Artillery battalion in the Hawaii National Guard. He left the guard in 1954 as a lieutenant colonel to concentrate on his duties as managing editor of the newspaper.

In 1961 Twigg-Smith took control of the financially ailing paper with the help of outside investors. It became financially profitable. In 1993 it was bought by a regional subsidiary of the Gannett Company for $250 million. In 1942 he married Bessie Twigg-Smith and divorced in 1984. They had five children.

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