Serving Those in Need

Photo by Lawrence Tabudlo

Dorothy Douthit has spent much of her life educating and uplifting the disadvantaged and displaced. It’s why she’ll be among the honorees at Pacific Gateway Center’s 50th anniversary celebration.

Whenever immigrants and refugees run into Dorothy Douthit, they greet her as “Dr. D.”

It’s a much easier way of saying her name. It’s also a moniker the longtime board member of Pacific Gateway Center has never grown tired of hearing.

“They have such a hard time with my first and last names,” acknowledges Douthit, who’s been teaching scores of people and helping them find stability in Hawai‘i for the past five decades. “When I started doing all of this, the ‘th’ in the middle of my names — Doro-th-y Dou-th-it — was really hard for them to say.”

What hasn’t been hard for these island newcomers, however, is seeking out Douthit for her wise counsel and gentle, guiding hand. Beginning in the early 1970s when refugees and immigrants were arriving from Vietnam, China and the Philippines, to more recent times when foreign-born resettlers have turned up from other parts of the world, Douthit has had a profound influence on the lives of these individuals seeking a new home and fresh start.

For her exceptional contributions and lifelong commitment to serving the disadvantaged, uprooted and displaced, Douthit will be among the honorees at PGC’s 50th anniversary celebration in October.

As Hao Nguyen, PGC’s deputy director of development, notes, “Dr. Douthit’s kindness, dedication and leadership have made a lasting impact on PGC’s clients and staff. As we reflect on our 50 years of service, we recognize that many of the organization’s major milestones and accomplishments are a direct result of her vision and hard work. Her unwavering belief in the power of education and social support has guided PGC’s efforts to empower refugees, immigrants and other underserved populations to build better lives in Hawai‘i.”

Douthit joined the Immigrant Resource Center as a board member in 1987 — 12 years before it was renamed Pacific Gateway Center. Yet, even before then, she was making her mark at Kalihi-Pālama Education Center, where vital services such as language interpretation and translation were being offered by bilingual case managers.
“We usually had several of the language groups in our office, and if we needed a different language, we’d go out and find a translator. Today, we have 32 different languages that we provide services in, including Arabic and Ukrainian,” she explains.

Additionally, Douthit played a crucial role in developing initiatives at Kalihi-Pālama Immigrant Service Center. Among the initiatives were adult literacy and young refugee programs, and English as a second language classes.

“There were not very many services before (the early ’70s) and so it was difficult for those coming to Hawai‘i,” she recalls. “But as we talked with these people, we found out what they really needed and started providing programs. We began with a handful of people and it quickly grew because the need was so great.”

Interestingly, Douthit was also instrumental in launching the center’s much-celebrated Culinary Business Incubator in the early 2000s. As she remembers, the concept was conceived after a Burmese immigrant showed up at a focus group meeting expressing doubts about her abilities as a physics teacher.

“She said she didn’t think she’d ever have the skills to go back to the University of Yangon and teach physics there, but then she added, ‘But I can cook,’” Douthit recalls. “Just from that came the kitchen incubator idea that we later developed a whole cooking program for.”

Located on ‘Umi Street in Kalihi, the incubator facility houses 11 commercial-grade kitchens designed to help mostly low-income individuals interested in the food service industry. Clients are able to rent the kitchens to cook and prepare food and may utilize the dry and cold storage spaces as well — all at acceptable hourly rates.

“It’s such an amazing place for so many people,” Douthit says.

As a youngster growing up in a small farming town in Minnesota, Douthit had an inkling that her life would be geared toward teaching and caring for others — particularly the poor and downtrodden.

“When I was a little girl, I used to set up the canning jars and prop my dolls and stuffed animals and things in front of them and then I would teach them.

Some were different and some were the same,” recalls the woman who would go on to study in Germany and Spain and teach in Mexico and Alaska, where she’d instruct the Tlingit Indians.

“In all those places, I was always very interested in the poor — always looking for what is sort of the common humanity, or what we all have that’s the same,” explains Douthit, who also spent a considerable amount of her early adult years in Samoa.

“So it’s always been my leaning.”

In 1967, she landed in the islands after being hired as a professor of Germanic languages at University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa. Dissatisfied with the direction of her career, however, she quickly changed course and found solace in obtaining a master’s in education administration.

Armed with that degree, Douthit let her interest in the plight of Hawai‘i’s immigrant and refugee population take flight in the early ’70s. Back then, the federal government’s Model Cities Project was already in full swing in addressing many social and economic challenges happening around the country, including solving the largely inefficient urban renewal and poverty programs. A willing agent of change, Douthit bought into the project’s vision and was immediately tapped to lead Kalihi-Pālama Education Center, where she worked with high school dropouts and others lacking access to education.

For Douthit, who would later serve for three decades as head of school at Academy of the Pacific (formerly Honolulu Junior Academy), this was a particularly joyous period of her life.

“My primary role was head of the education component, but it was a cultural thing for us — a group of maybe 40 young people who were in their 20s and 30s, and who had a vision of the future and how we were going to make things better. There was excitement, enthusiasm and a sense of empowerment. It was a wonderful time,” she recalls.

It was also the perfect occasion to continue uplifting some of the state’s most vulnerable communities.

“One of the things we did early on was hold a class for Korean construction workers where we’d videotape the construction worker bosses explaining things, and then we would tell (the immigrant workers), ‘This is what it means,’ so that they would be able to understand and work more efficiently and happily in construction.”

Douthit calls her five decades of dedicated service “a pleasure to do” because, at her core, she’s always been someone most interested in people.

“Being united for a common cause is a motivating force for me,” she says. “It’s something that has always made me want to work hard and help others.”

And yet, she sees the end nearing. At age 86, Douthit plans on retiring as soon as she’s able to find her replacement on the board.

“I think it’s time to get someone new,” she confesses. “There are so many other things that I love to do — I love to do Zumba and walk on the beach, and I love to sing in a big choir and do Balkan dancing.”

Whenever retirement comes, the one they call Dr. D will almost certainly miss the people the most.

“I hope that I’ll be able to stay in touch with the people here at the center, because they’re remarkable,” she says. “Every single person has dedicated a great deal of time and energy into helping this organization work.”

Gateway To A Gala

When Pacific Gateway Center hosts its 50th anniversary celebration early next month, board member Dorothy Douthit insists she’ll be as interested in the event’s fare as she’ll be in the overall affair.

Food, it turns out, has been central to the center since its inception.

“We’ve always united around food. In fact, one of the seven values of the Pacific Gateway Center is good food,” Douthit says.

Of course, the main item on the menu for PGC’s Golden Gala: Honoring Our Past to Inspire the Future — scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 5, 5–8 p.m., at Japanese Cultural Center of Hawai‘i — is to recognize three founding churches; a key visionary who helped many immigrants and refugees resettle in the islands and lead productive, self-sufficient lives; and Douthit.

Since the first wave of refugees began fleeing war-torn Vietnam in the early ’70s, Aldersgate United Methodist Church, Kaumakapili Church and St. Elizabeth’s Church have played key roles in sponsoring exiled South Vietnamese and aiding in their resettlement. Just as instrumental has been Mary Ho, who’s credited with building community support while guiding a number of crucial services, including acculturation classes and translation services. She will be honored during an in-memoriam tribute.

Aside from appreciating these stalwarts, the event seeks to raise funds that support the center’s transformative programs, which include access to language classes, health services, jobs, entrepreneurship opportunities and legal assistance.

“I’m excited that we’re having this gala and that more people will get to know what this center is all about and how many people are being helped by it,” says Douthit.

To learn more about the gala and PGC, visit pacificgatewaycenter.org.