By Valerie Monson | Special to the Herald

Sacred Hearts Father Nobincio “Nobby” Fernandez, who spent more than a decade at the helm of St. Philomena and St. Francis churches on the Kalaupapa peninsula, died Jan. 31 at St. Francis Hospice-West. He was 78 and a priest for 43 years.

His funeral is 7 p.m., Feb. 12, at St. Ann Church in Kaneohe. He will be buried with military honors at 9 a.m. on Feb. 13 at Hawaiian Memorial Park.

“He was a good Father,” said Clarence “Boogie” Kahilihiwa, a longtime member of the Kalaupapa Catholic community. “He was outgoing and loved the people here.”

Nobincio Fernandez was born in Wahiawa on Sept 28, 1929. His family moved to Kauai in 1936. After graduating from Kapaa High School in 1948, Fernandez joined the U.S. Air Force.

Thoughts of the priesthood were to come later. In fact, the year before he joined the military, he fell in love and got engaged. He had every intention of returning home and getting married, but while in Japan he became more involved with the church and saw the good he could do as a priest.

“It was about helping people, eh?” he said in an interview years ago, sitting on the steps of the St. Francis rectory with its sweeping view of the sea. “Even that time, they were short of priests. In Japan, we used to visit different orphanages. I just decided I wanted to be a priest.”

Father Fernandez received an early discharge from the Air Force in 1955 to enter Sacred Hearts Seminary College in Hauula.

He went to Fairhaven, Mass., in 1957 for his 18-month novitiate. Taking the religious name of Brother Martin Mary, he made his first vows in 1959 and final vows in 1962. Bishop James J. Sweeney ordained him a priest on June 12, 1965, at Our Lady of Peace Cathedral in Honolulu.

After ordination, he served at various Hawaii parishes — St. George, St. Elizabeth, St. Roch, St. Joseph in Waipahu, St. Anthony on Maui and St. Michael in Waialua. In 1969, he returned to the Air Force as a reserve chaplain attaining the rank of lieutenant colonel.

Father Fernandez retired from military service after 10 years and in 1979, to his delight, was named pastor of St. Francis Church in Kalaupapa.

“You saw two sides of him,” said Sacred Hearts Father Lane Akiona of St. Augustine Church in Waikiki. “There was that gruff military side and there was the very compassionate side, the pastoral side which really touched me. He always felt that we had an obligation to the people of Kalaupapa. He was always fighting for their rights.”

Father Fernandez had a special insight into the injustices suffered by the people of Kalaupapa. While a chaplain in Okinawa in 1970, he experienced numbness in his calf. Unable to make a diagnosis, military doctors sent him to the United States national leprosarium at Carville, La., where it was determined he had Hansen’s disease, or leprosy. While there, he unexpectedly met up with old friends from Kalaupapa.

Medicine had a cure for the disease by the time Father Fernandez had contracted it.

“I knew something about leprosy so I wasn’t shocked,” he said. “There was no cause to be alarmed. I knew that between cancer and leprosy, I would rather have leprosy.”

For his 12 years in Kalaupapa, he was a central part of the community, presiding at daily Mass, promoting the canonization of Father Damien de Veuster, visiting residents, sharing his home-cooked dishes, and fishing. His second greatest love after God was the sea.

As he celebrated Mass at St. Francis, Fernandez would face the pews filled with parishioners and, behind them, the open doors that reflected shimmering Kalaupapa harbor. On sunny days, he would slip his vestments over a T-shirt, shorts and slippers so he could get to his favorite fishing hole with as little time lost as possible.

“When the ocean is calm, the sermon is short!” he would say, followed by that high-pitched laugh which so often filled the air at Kalaupapa parties and gatherings.

In 1991, he suffered a heart attack while trying to haul in a 40-pound barracuda off the Kalaupapa pier. Forced into semi-retirement because of his health, he returned to Kalaupapa whenever he could, but only for a few days or weeks at a time.

The fishing tales made for good fun, but the Sacred Hearts priest knew what really had drawn him to Kalaupapa.

“A young woman once asked a great saint, ‘When will I see God?’ and he said ‘When you open your eyes,’ ” Fernandez once recalled. “At Kalaupapa, if you don’t see God’s hand in creation, well, then I don’t know. You just don’t see.

“Some people they really don’t sit down and see the beauty,” he said. “The people who drink in the beauty and get to know the people of Kalaupapa, they really enjoy it. Those are the people who see.”

About two weeks ago, internal bleeding sent Father Fernandez to the hospital where he suffered a major stroke. He died peacefully at St. Francis Hospice on Jan. 31.