The DURP `Ohana to honor the establishment of DURP over two academic years 2019 through 2021

In 1968 a proposal to start a program of Planning and Public Policy was rejected.

Year 1: A second proposal was approved in the Fall of 1969 and the founder, Tom Dinell, hired Miriam Ryder as his assistant followed by Luciano Minerbi. These three worked with community and university leaders in establishing a set of principles and standards for a degree in Urban and Regional Planning, however the program was not funded.

Year 2: In August 1970 UH President Harlan Cleveland requested a formal proposal for a Master of Planning Degree be submitted by December.  Our faculty created real planning projects for graduate students through joint endeavors with other UH programs, departments and colleges.

Citing excerpts from APA Hawaii interview of Tom Dinell in 2018, “I was asked to start some kind of community-oriented program, which, after a few more twists and turns, became the Pacific Urban Studies and Planning Program, the brief progenitor of the Department of Urban and Regional Planning (DURP). Two credits along the way: First, Harvey Perloff, a giant in academic planning at the University of Chicago, insisted that planning belonged with the social sciences rather than affiliated elsewhere; and second, Roland Fuchs, chair of the Geography Department at the time and now at the East-West Center, who guided the proposal for DURP through the academic maze. . . . Founding and developing the Department of Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Hawai’i, which includes working with our faculty, teaching and conducting research, watching graduates pursue their professional careers in Hawai’i, on the mainland, and abroad, collaborating with many of our graduates and other professionals in the field, and interacting with citizen-based groups. For these opportunities I am most grateful.”

Both Tom and Luciano have been a part of DURP for over 50 years. Our many planning careers were launched incrementally by Tom, Miriam and Luciano who collaborated, designed, researched, and persisted over two academic years 1969-1970 and 1970-1971. It seems appropriate to honor their valuable contributions to DURP, to us, to Hawai`i, and to communities nationally and internationally, over a similar two year period.