Obituary: Charles Frankel

Born in Chicago, he worked on US newspapers before his short spell in London and then struck out for Hawaii, where he made his career on the Honolulu Star-Bulletin from 1960 to 1988 in roles ranging from reporter, copy editor, book and drama reviewer, news editor and assistant editor of the editorial page.

“He wanted to work his way around the world as a journalist,” his son David Frankel said. “He had job offers in Rhodesia and Hawaii, and he was choosing between the two. The folks in Rhodesia would not tell him how much money they would pay him, so he took the Star-Bulletin job.”

While working on the newspaper’s editorial page, Frankel also taught journalism at the University of Hawaii, mostly in a programme for Chinese students.

He told his family that he did not want a funeral. Asked how his father would want people to remember him, David Frankel said, “He would tell them to have a glass of scotch”.

PHOTO: Charles Frankel wearing a handwritten sign wishing the Honolulu Star-Bulletin well in its new newsroom in 2001. ■