John N. Fuyuume, 91, shipping executive

John N. Fuyuume, 91, of Audubon, Montgomery County, a former shipping executive in Bermuda and a former trustee of the Bay Atlantic Symphony in Bridgeton, N.J., died Friday, Sept. 30, at Einstein Medical Center Montgomery.

Born in Los Angeles, Mr. Fuyuume earned a bachelor's at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, N.Y., in 1948 and a master's in music literature at the University of Rochester in 1950.

But his education was delayed when, as a teenager, he was interned with his family and others of Japanese descent on the orders of the federal government, following the 1941 Japanese attack on Hawaii that brought that nation into World War II.

The Fuyuumes were housed in the Gila River Relocation Center in Arizona, which opened in July 1942 and closed in November 1945. At one point it housed more than 13,000 people, most of them from California.

An estimated 120,000 people, many of them U.S. citizens, were housed in 10 camps in several states during the war.

"He didn't talk about that much," Eiko Ikeda, a sister-in-law, said.

But in 1944, the Fuyuume family was allowed to move to Upper Deerfield Township, N.J., where like others from such camps, they worked in the frozen-food factory of what is now Seabrook Brothers & Sons.

"His parents had a store and sold fruits and vegetables in Pasadena" before the war, Ikeda said.

After his musical education, he had three careers.

From 1951 to 1960, he worked for Seabrook Farms Co. in Seabrook, leaving as manager of manufacturing planning and control.

From 1960 to 1979, he worked in several cities for IU International Corp. of Philadelphia, lastly as director of executive compensation and services.

And from 1979, until he retired in 1989, he was vice president and secretary for the former Gotaas-Larsen Shipping Corp. in Hamilton, Bermuda, where for a time he was corporate secretary for the Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines.

In 1965, Mr. Fuyuume married Setsuko Hada at the Deerfield Presbyterian Church.

When they returned to South Jersey in 1990, he cofounded and became, as a volunteer, a project director for the Seabrook Educational and Cultural Center, retiring in 2008.

In retirement, he was an honorary director at the Eastman School.

"He was trained as a concert pianist himself," his sister-in-law said, but performed only at civic events.

But he and his wife did set up the Setsuko and John Fuyuume Piano Endowment Fund at Eastman.

He was a member of the board of governors for the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles.

And he was a former president and treasurer of the Seabrook chapter of the Japanese American Citizens League.

He was a member of the Cumberland County Tourism Advisory Council and the Upper Deerfield Township Historical Commission.

Besides his sister-in-law, Mr. Fuyuume is survived by a brother-in-law and another sister-in-law. His wife died in 2015 and a brother, Robert, died in 1978.

A visitation was set from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., Friday, Oct. 14, at the Deerfield Presbyterian Church, Old Deerfield Pike, in Upper Deerfield Township, before a 1 p.m. funeral there, with burial in the church cemetery.

Donations may be sent to the Seabrook Educational and Cultural Center, 1325 Highway 77, Seabrook, N.J. 08302.

Condolences may be offered to the family at freitagfuneralhome.com.

wnaedele@phillynews.com

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