Victor C. Pellegrino Memorial College Scholarship

Victor C. Pellegrino was born in 1936 in Niagara Falls, New York, and was of Italian descent. He eventually spread his roots across the continent and the Pacific Ocean to a new island home and married Wallette Garcia of Maui, and moved to Waikapū in 1967, where they raised their 3 children: Shelley, Angela, and Hōkūao. Victor was a professor of writing and Asian world literature at the University of Hawaiʻi Maui College for 28 years and retired with Professor Emeritus status. During his teaching career, he studied in China and Japan and was a Fulbright Scholar in India. A prolific writer, author, and poet, Victor penned 15 books over four decades. Perpetuating his Italian heritage and traditions while maintaining his family connections in Italy was very important. To him, “La famiglia et tutto” - Family is everything. He was passionate about food and cooking, especially Italian food. As an innovative cook, he often infused kalo, ʻulu, and other local Hawaiʻi ingredients into his repertoire of dishes. In retirement, he continued writing and engaging in environmental justice issues on Maui, primarily related to Hawaiian water rights, specifically in Nā Wai ʻEhā. Most notably, he and his son, Hōkūao, established Nohoʻana Farm in Waikapū in 2004 and were committed to cultivating and processing Hawaiian food crops and creating a robust ʻāina-based education program as a core component of the farm’s mission. Victor’s life could be simply summed up as someone who cooked to nourish, wrote to inspire, grew to feed, taught to make a difference, advocated to protect ʻāina and wai, traveled to learn, loved to be a husband and father, and grandfather. Victor passed away peacefully in 2024 at his home in Waikapū, surrounded by his loving ʻohana.