Samuel Tadakatsu Kaneko

SACRAMENTO —Samuel Tadakatsu Kaneko, who was known for his leadership and volunteer work in Sacramento’s Japanese American community, died of a heart attack on April 8 at the age of 85, the Sacramento Bee reports.
A landscape architect for the Office of the State Architect for 33 years, he planned and developed state parks and the grounds at CSU Hayward (now called CSU East Bay).

Kaneko enjoyed volunteer activities at Buddhist Church of Sacramento, the Japanese American Citizens League, and the Asian Community Center and its nursing home. He was also a member of the Sacramento Hiroshima Nikkeijin Kai.

Born in Sacramento on Dec. 1, 1922, he was the eldest of six children raised in Lincoln by Iwayo and Takanobu Kaneko, who worked for Fowler Nursery. He graduated from Lincoln High School and was interned with his family at camps at Tule Lake in California and Heart Mountain in Wyoming.
After World War II, he earned a bachelor’s degree in landscape architecture from UC Berkeley in 1949 and joined the California Department of General Services. He married Jean Yamasaki in 1953.

His duties as a landscape architect included drawing blueprints for public recreation areas, including Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park in Santa Cruz County. He retired in 1982 after planning and developing many public sites.
Combining business with pleasure, he often took his family on vacation while he designed campgrounds along the Pacific coast.

Public service was a way of life for Kaneko, who valued helping others, his family and friends said. As a Nisei, he felt a duty to help other community members who came of age in the wartime internment camps.

Kaneko learned his handyman skills from Sacramento contractor Tony Brazil and Popular Mechanics magazine. A popular “fix-it man” in the Nikkei community, he responded to calls from elderly neighbors, requests from community groups and emergency pages during the Buddhist Church’s annual festival.

He made electrical and plumbing repairs at the church, organized volunteers for work projects at the ACC, and helped build a gazebo at the nursing home. He also helped rebuild the Sacramento JACL office after it was firebombed in 1993.

In several small apartment buildings that Kaneko owned downtown, he rented units to elderly widows for $50 a month, including utilities. He also shared his values and skills with young people, helping with Boy Scout projects and teaching his three daughters how to key locks and make home repairs.

Kaneko was publicly honored for his volunteer work by the church, the ACC and the JACL. Always friendly and talkative with other customers in line at Home Depot, he was reserved at social functions and reluctant to talk about himself or his contributions.

He is survived by his wife, Jean; daughters, Betty Kaneko (and husband Roger) of Sacramento, Kathy Kaneko (and husband Mike) of Laurel Hollow, N.Y., and Teresa Kaneko of Sacramento; brothers, John Kaneko (and wife Mae) of Carmichael and Yuji Kaneko (and wife Kimi) of Sacramento; sisters, Nobuko Yamamoto of Culver City and Tomiko Ibser of Sacramento; and grandchildren, Matthew, Kristen, Larissa and Jayne.

Family and friends are invited to a memorial service on Saturday, April 19, at 5 p.m. at Buddhist Church of Sacramento Betsuin, 2401 Riverside Blvd., Sacramento, CA 95818.

In lieu of flowers, remembrances may be made to Sacramento Buddhist Church or the Asian Community Center, 7375 Park City Dr., Sacramento, CA 95831.