Gary Schooley

Long tim e M auiresident and inspiration - is dead.

On November 4, 2020 Gary Schooley passed away after living a lifetime of adventure, enthusiasm, creativity and a courageous journey of personal survival.

Gary Bernard Schooley, artist, poet, storyteller and musician, was born

January 3rd, 1938 in classic San

Francisco to Bernard and Ruth

Schooley. He spent all of his best days pursuing the love of life and living his dreams, never dissuaded by conventional wisdom.

In 1979 at the prime age of 39 and by no fault of his own, Gary became a paraplegic, an outcome of an industrial accident. Its grueling recovery process did not discourage him from living a full and wonderful life. He relocated to Maui thereafter and viewed life with passionate and creative blue eyes, challenging so many to free themselves from their own self-imposed limitations by his own example.

Naturally uncompromisable and void of pretense, he incited overwhelming selfreflection inside many whom must often confront mental and physical affliction, an inevitable process of humanity that touches us all from time to time. Gary’s brilliant light shone upon darkened paths within our own hearts, igniting fire and hope, dissolving barriers that limit ourselves from achieving our personal dreams. He forged ahead through incredible challenges so well that it was his living embodiment that inspired us all to become the best that we can be in our own lives. Rare is a person that loved life as much as Gary did. He did not want to leave. Gary was a veteran of the U.S. Air Force and a National Guardsman. He was preceded by his parents Bernard and Ruth Mollett Schooley and his brother Ronald B. Schooley. He is survived by his sister Linda S. Schooley of Santa Rosa, his daughter Valarie Ann Schooley, and son Jeffrey Loren Schooley of Marfa, Texas, his grandsons Jeremiah Maluhia Coltart, Keenan Kaniela Coltart, Donnie Ray Schooley and his many many friends of Maui.