SVdP’s store in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, has been blessed with a beautiful mural, thanks to artist David Clemens and the St. Thomas
Knights of Columbus 1363. (Left to right): Robert Valencia of the Knights of Columbus; Ev Burns of SVdP; David Clemens; Mike
Anderson of the Knights of Columbus; and Gary Damiano of SVdP.
The Tom Kobayashi Center: In Honor of an Extraordinary
Vincentian in the Seattle-King County Area
The building that houses the Georgetown Food
Bank, Help Line Center, and Case Management
Program at the Society of St. Vincent de Paul
Council of Seattle|King County (SVdP) was named
the Tom Kobayashi Center earlier this year.
Kobayashi has been volunteering with SVdP for
more than seven decades. He is the longest-serving
SVdP volunteer in the United States.
“Mr. Kobayashi’s service to Seattle and King
Communities is extraordinary. He is a role model for
all of us, said Jim Gauntt,” President of the SVdP
Council and its Board of Directors.
joined as a Vincentian in 1936 when he was 20 years
old. During World War II when Japanese Americans
were placed in internment camps in the West,
Kobayashi even started a SVdP group at his
internment camp in Minidoka County in Idaho.
In 2008, Kobayashi finally had to slow down and is
now less active at the St. Matthew Parish SVdP
Conference. He attends Seattle|King County Council
quarterly meetings and has only missed one in the
past four years.
Tom is an extraordinary Vincentian indeed!
Kobayashi was born on Sept. 4, 1916, into a poor
family, the oldest of six children. “I knew what it
was like to be poor,” Kobayashi said in an interview
with the National Catholic Reporter. “I was taught at
an early age by Maryknoll sisters who instilled the
idea of doing what is right to help the poor,” he said.
In 1934, while attending the University of
Washington, Kobayashi joined the St. Vincent de
Paul conference associated with Our Lady of
Martyrs, a Japanese parish. The pastor was
Maryknoll Fr. Leopold Tibesar, who was fluent in
Japanese and also served as the spiritual advisor to
the St. Vincent de Paul conference.
16
Father Kevin Moran , Tom Kobayashi and St. Vincent de Paul
Council President Jim Gauntt at the Tom Kobayashi Center.
Kobayashi has served SVdP for 77 years, having
End Poverty Through Systemic Change