Daniel Ikua Purdy Sr.
Year Inducted: 2024
1915 - 2006
Ulupalakua Ranch | Maui
Daniel lkua Purdy Sr. was born on May 12, 1915 in Kamuela, Hawaiʻi. He was the second-youngest child of lkua Purdy & Margaret Keala Manu Napuupahee Beniamina. When he was five years old, the family moved from Waimea, Hawai'i to Ulupalakua, Maui. Ulupalakua was where he spent the rest of his life learning the paniolo way of life.
At the age of 14, Daniel Ikua Purdy started working for Ulupalakua ranch under owner Edward Baldwin. When the ranch was sold in 1963, he worked for C. Pardee Erdman, until he retired in 1977 at the age of 62.
As a paniolo he herded cattle, branded cattle, roped wild cattle and trained horses. On the ranch, each cowboy had their own string of ranch horses used for work. The horses that Dan would pick were also the ones that no one else wanted or could get along with. These horses were known as hapalaka, since no one could handle them as they were high energy and spunky. He loved these horses as he loved the challenge of breaking them. Daniel Ikua Purdy could make any horse rideable for anyone while also making himself the horse’s only rider or the only paniolo it would listen to.
Daniel Ikua Purdy’s grandson Ned Purdy recounts this story: “I learned this in my younger years, Grandpa Dan would always saddle up his horse Lady for me to ride and always walked me around with a leader line, but this time I begged him to let me ride on my own. He told me, if you can get her to take you to the end of the fence then I could ride as long as I wished in the pasture land behind his Ulupalakua house. Well, she only went as far as the tree by which he saddled her and I couldn't get her to go anywhere. He just stood there and laughed and laughed at me. I eventually got her to go farther than the tree, but it took a lot of time for me to get her to do this and every time we left the sight of the house all she wanted to do was turn around and go back home to Grandpa Dan.”
After retirement you would find Dan riding every day on his horse Blackie collecting cans and rubbish along the roadside. Some days he might come home with 2-3 bags of cans all tied to his saddle. He would then sit outside, crush his cans and get ready to recycle them.
He married Nancy Delima on January 1, 1940. They had 6 children, 4 boys and 2 daughters, Keala "Tita," Dan Jr., Mary "Cupie," Michael Sr., Ned Sr., and Ralph "Halulu.” Dan raised his family in the same house that he was also raised in at Ulupalakua. He never moved away. Daniel Ikua Purdy Sr. died at the age of 91 on May 14, 2006.