John E. Ambagis

As a treasured member of BILAC and Hale Lokahi we share this remembrance of John E. Ambagis. On January 2, 2026, under the brightness of the full moon and surrounded by friends and family at home, John E. Ambagis made the journey home to Ke Akua. John was born in 1933 in New Haven, CT to Lucinda Woods and Stephen Ambagis and he was a firecracker from the start. In an effort to save himself from delinquency, at 17 he joined the National Guard and shortly thereafter served in the Navy during the Korean war as a gunner and then a boatswain's mate. Once out of the Navy, he became a police officer in Lodi, California and met his first wife Maryann with whom he had four sons, Johnny, Jimmy, Joey and Jeffrey and helped to care for Maryanne's daughter Ginger. During his time as a police officer and seeing the hard lives of so many teens, he found that his calling was to help kids. He earned a Master's degree at Western Institute of Psychology and trained as a psychotherapist under Robert Goulding, which is where he met Mabel, his wife now for 46 years and life partner for 57 years and became a family with her son, Kevin, who he later adopted as his own. Together they cared for so many kids in so many ways including through the California state correctional system and the Pinellas Marine Institute in Florida. Throughout his life he took on various jobs, from puffing cereal at General Mills to managing a Marina in Madeira Beach, Florida. John's philosophy was that there was no job too menial that was not worth doing well and with love. Later in life John and Mabel went on to be contracted to facilitate relationship workshops for couples in the military and traveled all over the world in that capacity. John and Mabel's life together brought them from California to Oregon, Arizona, the Northeast and up and down the eastern seaboard on sailing adventures, from which came one of their most famous stories about being captured by the Cubans when sailing in international waters in the early 70's. Together they had one son, Stephen. Both Kevin and Stephen moved in the early 2000's to Hawai'i where John and Mabel also found community with Father George and Joe Camacho, they moved to Hawai'i in 2006 and felt like they landed where they wanted to be for the rest of their lives. For years they supported the Hale Lokahi community in Volcano and continued their service work together. This week we have heard from so many people whose lives were touched by John; we have heard how John was their guiding light, their beacon. So many shared how they were lost until they met John, at which point their life trajectories changed for the better. He felt purpose when he was caring for people and it was his life's joy to connect with children. Forever the "clown", John always kept 2 foam red noses in his pocket, one to entertain and one to give away. This purely represented his life philosophy. He had a childlike joy for this world which was tempered with reminding people to care for each other no matter their race, sexual orientation, or economic status. He may not have been a canonized saint, or even close, but he worked to embody all of those things he truly felt the world needed to remember. He will be missed by so many but has made an impact that will live on through all of us that have known him and heard his call to be better and connected humans. Family and friends are having a private service on Sunday. He is survived by his wife, Mabel, all of his sons Johnny Ambagis (Victoria), Kevin Ambagis, Jimmy Ambagis (Regina), Joe Ambagis (Cherisse), Jeffery Ambagis (Chrissy), Stephen Ambagis (Hilary), 13 grandchildren and 10 great grandchildren. Fairwinds and following seas, John.