2026 Peace Corps Week: Returned volunteer Stu Kearns made life-long friends at both Hawaiʻi Island training and Malaysia post

Posted on March 3, 2026March 4, 2026 by Staff

The Hawaiʻi Island environment of ethnic and cultural diversity was precisely why Hilo had been chosen as a Peace Corps training site for Southeast Asia volunteers, and it was here that Stu Kearns’s perspective began to shift.

An old black and white photo of a class of students, all wearing white shirts. Two men sit at front center. — Stu Kearns (front row, center left): “1965. My home room class at Marudi Secondary School. Students included Chinese and Malay day students and many indigenous upriver students who were boarders. Seated next to me is our British headmaster. All classes were conducted in English except for Chinese and Malay language classes. After completing upper secondary education this facilitated many students to obtain overseas university degrees.” (Courtesy photo)

This story is by University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo Professor of Political Science Su-Mi Lee as part of a series of stories to be published here at UH Hilo Stories this week celebrating 2026 Peace Corps Week, March 2-6, each day featuring a returned Peace Corps volunteer and new theme. Professor Lee’s research activity includes a years-long project documenting returned volunteers who have ties to UH Hilo and/or Hawaiʻi Island that includes written biographies as well as video and audio interviews.

Returned Peace Corps Volunteer: Stu Kearns

Malaysia: 1964-1967

Today’s Theme: A Moment that Changed Me

In 1963, Stu Kearns was a recent college graduate who found himself at a crossroads, unsure of his professional future. This uncertainty led him to join the Peace Corps. He was assigned to the third group of volunteers sent to Sabah and Sarawak (now part of Malaysia), but before he reached Southeast Asia, his journey began with an intensive training program in Hilo, Hawaiʻi.

Stu arrived in Hilo in October 1963 alongside 60 other trainees. The experience was defined by an immediate and deep immersion into the local community. Shortly after arrival, Stu and several other trainees met generous locals — a connection that became a cornerstone of Stu’s experience — who introduced the group to the local lifestyle, taking them to the top of Rainbow Falls in the evenings to “talk story” and driving them across the island on weekends to show them areas beyond the training center.

The training was rigorous and multifaceted. To prepare for village life in Malaysia, Stu and his cohort spent a week living in the remote Waipio Valley. Other physically demanding training programs include workouts in the tracks and gyms at Hilo Intermediate and Hilo High, swimming at the NAS pool, and outrigger canoe paddling. The group also completed long-distance hikes to Kings Landing and the summit of Mauna Kea.

Stu and friend sit on couch together. Older balck and white photo. — Stu Kearns: “Dec 1965. Myself and the late indigenous chief Baya Malang who accompanied me to Mobile, Alabama, during home leave before returning to Sarawak [Malaysia’s largest state] for a second two-year term of service. We stopped in Hilo on both ways and he even visited PC Waipio Valley training site longhouse and was welcomed into local friends homes. They even loaned him an overcoat to deal with the mainland cold. As he spoke no English, I translated the whole time. This picture with article appeared in the Mobile newspaper. Still today if you go to his longhouse and family gatherings there is a whole wall of pictures of this trip and I am forever a part of his ʻohana.”

Stu and three people sit in a diner. — Stu Kearns: “Aug 2025. My wife Uyang and I seated during our annual post-retirement visit to Sarawak at a local indigenous coffee shop with two of the late chief Baya Malang’s family standing. Every day Uyangs family drops me in town to meet the chiefs family or my former students who are now in their late 70s.” (Courtesy photos)

During this period, a national tragedy created a permanent bond between the trainees and the residents of Hilo. When President John F. Kennedy was assassinated, the trainees had no access to a television to follow the news. The locals, who lived just below the training center, invited Stu and his peers into their home to watch the coverage. This shared mourning culminated in a memorial event at the Hilo Armory and the eventual dedication of a JFK Memorial at the training center — a monument that was later relocated to the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo during a 50th-anniversary reunion.

Stu found that the Hilo community was not just a backdrop for training but an active participant in it. Local teachers supervised his practice teaching in local schools, and residents frequently offered trainees rides and hospitality. This environment of ethnic and cultural diversity was precisely why Hilo had been chosen as a training site for Southeast Asia, and it was here that Stu’s perspective began to shift. He felt a level of comfort and acceptance in Hilo that made the location feel like a home rather than a temporary station.

Stu sits with a group of students who hold musical instruments. — Stu Kearns: “1966. During school vacations some indigenous families could not afford to travel several days downriver to bring students home so local government supplied a longboat and driver to help. We teachers frequently accompanied them and were able to meet their families. Here I am in a longhouse with students. The musical instrument is a sape, which is central to indigenous culture and entertainment. At the school we formed a sape club to help students maintain their culture while away from home.” (Courtesy photo)

This sense of belonging changed the trajectory of Stu’s life. After completing his initial Peace Corps service in Malaysia from 1964 to 1967, Stu did not return to the continental United States to seek work. Instead, he returned to Hilo to work for several years in Peace Corps training programs, specifically in Cross-Cultural Studies. Then, Stu was offered a position directing In-Country training in Malaysia. Stu lived there for another three years before once again returning to Hilo, citing the enduring friendships with locals and fellow Returned Peace Corps Volunteers as the reason he stayed in Hilo. What began as a period of vocational uncertainty in 1963 resulted in a lifelong commitment to the people and culture of both Malaysia and Hawaiʻi.

Returned Peace Corps Volunteers Project

Su-Mi Lee casual portrait in outdoor setting on campus. — Su-Mi Lee

This week’s stories on returned Peace Corps volunteers is part of a larger project headed by Su-Mi Lee, a professor of political science, who along with her poli-sci students and members of the local community for years have been collecting biographical stories of returned volunteers who have ties to Hawaiʻi Island. Learn more about Prof. Lee’s Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Project (2023), and see more stories about it.

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