This living-tribute is offered with love, admiration and aloha for my husband, U.S. Coast Guard Command Master Chief Petty Officer Retired, Charles Peraro (Service: February 5,1980 to December 1, 2010), for his love, dedication, and devotion to our country, the U.S. Coast Guard, and his family. He has been the Ho’okele (steersman) of our family these past 30 years and counting and is a truly wonderful husband as well as father to our two grown children, Carlos and Camille. May we be blessed with at least another 30 years together. With love from your Ohana: Gladys, Carlos & Camille.

Over the decades since, all of America’s veterans were brought into the embrace of Memorial Day, and this tribute is directed to one in particular. His name is Maurice Sylvan Kane, Sr., and officer and gentleman and hero.

United States Army veteran Maurice Sylvan Kane, Sr. gave significantly more to the United States of America, the State of California, and his family, my Mother Constine Ruth Kane, my brother Michael Avery Kane, and myself, Maurice S. Kane Jr., than we could ever match if we were granted additional lifetimes.

The year of our father’s birth was 1929 and it marked the end of a period known in American history as the Roaring Twenties after the Wall Street Crash in October ushered in a worldwide Great Depression.

He came into the world on April 12, 1929, the thirteenth of fifteen children born to Joseph Levi Kane and Carrie Green Kane.

In 1945, the year that the Second World War ended, our father moved to California and graduated from San Pedro High School. Always valuing education, he obtained degrees from Los Angeles City College and then California University Los Angeles where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology.

Many soldiers, aviators, seamen, and Marines paid the ultimate sacrifice in defending freedom and democracy and South Korean sovereignty. Maurice Sylvan Kane, Sr. contributed directly and intrepidly to American military successes in the Korean War, receiving medals and commendations as an officer in the United States Army rising to the rank of Major. It was a blessing for all of us, that he survived and thrived in the post-war era, continuing his relationship with the U.S. Armed Forces as a reservist, and further actively commemorating his brothers-in-arms throughout his life as a civilian by assisting homeless military veterans as a Founding Board Member of the United States Veterans Initiative, reviving the American Legion-Compton Post #719 and serving as Commander of that post, and participating in the Veterans of Foreign Wars–Compton Post #5394. Our father was as a lifelong giver; he contributed to educational opportunities in the community, including serving on the Advisory Committee of the Inglewood School District and the ROP/Vocational Education Advisory Committee of the Compton Unified School District; helped oversee the Los Angeles Housing Authority as Vice-Chairman; and imparted his unique vision to creating and fostering employment opportunities as an Administrator and Manager with the Employment Development Department, as the Special Programs Branch Chief of the California Department of Transportation, and Special Programs Administrator/Executive Director of the Southern California District Council of Carpenters as well as leading so many other entities and programs.

For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.” (Ecclesiastes 12: 10-14)

We shall always miss our father and will remember his character, work ethic, courage, wisdom, the daily lessons he taught by example and by specific instruction, a thousand sacrifices sublime and small, and 80 years of accomplishments as a student of life, as an officer and soldier of the greatest nation on earth, a citizen who never took for granted the precious right to vote and right to free speech (rights that he and so many others fought to defend and to advance), a husband, and father which helped shape and imbue our aspiration and dreams and lives and those who will follow us.

“They arose, all the valiant men…” (I Chronicles 10:12)

In the end, we will always love and miss Maurice S. Kane Sr. … truly a great man.

Mathew was my husband. He loved his country and his family. We have two beautiful daughters, Ariana and Arissa. His friends called him Big Country.

Love you always,
Reagan