About Ikaika

Lardizabal ohana

Ikaika Michael Lardizabal Hussey's family tree bridges the archipelagos of Hawaii and the Philippines. His maternal grandfather Ben Lardizabal left Tagudin (Ilocos Sur) in the 1930s, settling first in Chicago and Los Angeles, returning briefly to the Philippines after World War II and then moving to Honolulu to open Ben's Barber Shop, a Bethel Street enterprise which bustled with activity for 40 years. Coming with Ben to Honolulu was his wife Consuelo, a schoolteacher whose family was one of the founders of Tagudin High School, the first municipal high school outside of Manila, in 1915. Consuelo's sister, Juanita, led the school as its principal from 1968-1975, and Consuelo herself taught 3rd Grade at Cathedral School in Nuuanu, not far from her home on School Street in Kalihi. Ben and Consuelo's daughter, Edna Lardizabal Hussey, is the principal of the elementary program at Mid-Pacific in Manoa, which is the only Hawaii school that offers the Reggio Emilia branch of Italian pedagogy.

Hussey Ohana

Though his family originates in Niulii in the Kohala district of Hawaii Island, Theodore Hussey was born in Hilo, where his uncles served in the police and fire departments. Theodore himself served in the US Army during World War II, and went on to become a labor inspector and finally an organizer of the HGEA Retirees Unit. Teddi Hulihee was born in Honolulu but adopted by a Hawaiian family from Kona. She travelled aboard the ferries of the day between the two Kona districts of Hawaii and Oahu, attending school in Honolulu during the year and spending holidays on the slopes of Hualalai. While attending high school at Farrington, Teddi was recruited to work as a school administrator, where she acquired skills which served her well in her career as an assistant to the commandant of the Marine Corps. She and Theodore met in a Honolulu office and were wed in Hawi; their eldest child, Herbert married Edna Lardizabal in 1976.

Hussey-Townsend Ohana

Ikaika met his spouse, Marti Townsend, while working together on state education policy at the Hawaii State House of Representatives. Ms. Townsend’s mother is a registered nurse from Tennessee; she married award-winning emergency room physician Dr. Fred Ching, a graduate of Saint Louis High School in Kalaepohaku.

Marti is a graduate of Moanalua High School where she was a leader of their speech and debate squad; she went on to Boston University and finally completed a jurisdoctorate at the University of Hawaii William S. Richardson School of Law.

Ikaika’s advanced degree is a Master’s in Political Science from UH Mānoa, earned while organizing numerous social justice rallies, teaching, and starting small businesses.

Hussey and Townsend’s first date was a Local 5 union rally, and they were married a week after ending a nonviolent occupation at UH opposing classified military research. Marti is the former director for the Sierra Club and Ikaika develops community-owned solar and decarbonization projects.

They have three children ages 17, 14 and 9, and live in verdant Kalihi Valley with a cat, two fish, and a rescue dog named Margaret.