Greenwell family named Grand Marshals for Kailua Village parade

Tom Greenwell and his ohana were named Grand Marshals for the Kailua Village Independence Day Parade, placing one of West Hawaii’s best-known coffee families at the front of a holiday tradition that still moves through the middle of town. The parade began at 6 p.m. and ran from Kekuaokalani Gym on Kuakini Highway to Coconut Grove Marketplace on Alii Drive, a route that turned Kailua Village into the center of the island’s Fourth of July observance.

The honor came as Hawaii County rolled out its 2026 Fourth of July celebrations in Hilo and Kailua-Kona, a county-backed slate that included a car show, parade, live music, fireworks and more. In Kailua-Kona, the parade also carried a 250th anniversary theme, with organizers saying the selection recognized a Kona family whose story reflects hard work, perseverance, innovation and commitment to community.

For the Greenwells, that public recognition was rooted in more than a century and a half of Kona history. Greenwell Farms says the family’s ties to the district date to 1850, when Henry Nicholas Greenwell first came to Kona. The company says it now maintains coffee orchards on 85 acres, is developing new farms, and controls and manages another 60 acres of coffee for other landowners.

The family’s name has also been tied to Kona’s civic and cultural institutions for generations. Greenwell Farms says Tom’s mother was one of the founding members of the Kona Historical Society in 1976, the same year the society was created to collect, preserve and share the history of the Kona districts. The family also helped found the Kona Coffee Council in the early 1980s, linking the Greenwell name not only to production but to the broader effort to organize and protect Kona coffee’s identity.

That is what made the Grand Marshal selection resonate beyond parade logistics. On Alii Drive, the honor put agriculture, land stewardship and community memory in the same public space as fireworks and holiday celebration, underscoring how much of Kona’s identity still runs through coffee farms, family names and local institutions that have lasted for decades.