From Vietnam War to peaceful Pālamanui, Hawaiʻi CC professor’s journey in Storyland

For more than three decades, Richard Stevens has been an educator, mentor and environmental steward, inspiring generations of students at Hawaiʻi Community College–Pālamanui.

Now, the beloved professor is sharing the deeply personal tales that shaped his life in his new book, Storyland.

The memoir traces his extraordinary journey from the battlefields of the Vietnam War to the ancient trails of Hawaiʻi Island—a path of healing and discovery heavily influenced by his transformative experiences within the University of Hawaiʻi.

Life-changing transformation

Stevens, a former U.S. Marine, credits his time at UH with helping him pivot from the harsh realities of combat to a life dedicated to peace and cultural preservation. After returning from Vietnam and moving in with a Native Hawaiian family who embraced him as their “haole boy,” Stevens eventually pursued master’s and doctorate degrees in history at UH Mānoa. This educational journey offered him a new, profound purpose.

“It completely changed the direction of my life,” Stevens said of his connection to the university. “From being just out of the Marines and now embarked on really a life of peace and nature.”

Mission of harmony and healing

Since teaching his first class at Hawaiʻi CC in 1988, Stevens has educated more than 7,000 students. In his classroom, he seamlessly intertwines historical lessons with vivid personal anecdotes—affectionately called “storylands”—which ultimately laid the foundation for his new book.

The university has also inspired previous books. Years ago, after sharing with students in Pālamanui about his Vietnam experiences, a student encouraged and supported him to go back and find a Vietnamese woman warrior who had been captured and interrogated. That journey was relayed in his book Trail to Redemption: Love and War in Vietnam.

“It’s an example of the university and my association with the university playing these huge roles in my life, even giving me a mission,” Stevens said. “I would say that mission is a double one of peace and nature healing, and then giving me the opportunity to talk about it to eager listeners and then to engage those eager listeners in doing things. That has been a glorious part of this whole story of my life.”

Stevens’ impact extends far beyond the classroom walls. He and his students actively restore the island’s natural landscapes, planting thousands of native trees and caring for a 909-acre lowland dry forest preserve adjacent to the Pālamanui campus. Stevens invites his students to dedicate their planted trees to beloved family members, creating what he calls a “Forest of Loved Souls.”
 

—By Kelli Abe Trifonovitch

*This story originally appeared in University of Hawai'i News on June 26, 2026.