David Boynton

Summary

David Boynton was a leading expert on the natural history of the Hawaiian island of Kauaʻi, especially on the Kokeʻe Forest and the Alakaʻi Swamp and its wildlife. He was called "a voice for the Hawaiian wilderness," a "Guardian of the Kokeʻe Forest," and as an educator, "the window through which thousands of Hawai'i students learned about Hawaiian birds, plants, marine creatures, climate and much more." Boynton photographed a bird now believed extinct, the Kauaʻi ʻōʻō. He recorded the mating call of the single male, whose mate presumably did not survive Hurricane Iwa, in late 1987. The bird, probably the last of its species, was tending an empty nest. Boynton used this poignant recording and story to inspire Hawaiian school children in the traditional Hawaiian values of kuleana, malama, kokua, laulima, hoʻihi, lokahi, and pono, which translate roughly as rights and responsibilities to the land, the appropriateness of serving nature, helping others, cooperation, respect, peace and unity, and duty to do what is right.