Welcome to our new Choir Director, Thomas DeLaine! - Archived
We are excited to announce that Thomas DeLaine was recently hired to be our new choir director! Please read his bio below, and join us in welcoming him into this role:
Thomas P. DeLaine, Jr., was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, raised in High Point, North Carolina and has lived in Honolulu, Hawaii since 2023. He is the son of the late Reverend Thomas P. DeLaine and the late Ethel Washington Moragne DeLaine Jeffries. From the young age of six Thomas has played the piano, pipe organ since age eleven, and eventually conducted full church choirs since the age of eighteen.
With his background spanning twenty two years as a naval cryptologist and sixteen years as an information security professional, Thomas has performed fundraising concerts for food drives and mental wellness events in Gander, Newfoundland, Canada, as well as offered his musical talent singing and guiding choirs of different faiths in worship music at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam (previously known as Hickam AFB, Pearl Harbor Naval Base), Chaminade Mystical Rose Chapel and Grand Lodge of Florida Masonic Services. Additionally, he has performed solos for Pearl Harbor Veterans in the early nineties at U.S.S. Arizona Memorial services, plus weddings and other occasions.
Thomas is married to Abigail Louise Whitenack DeLaine “Abby” and has three daughters Natoshia Baker in West Palm Beach, Florida, Nicolette Oathout in Tallahassee, Florida, and Natalie Jaunich in Surprise, Arizona, stepson Ben Andrew Whitenack “Benji” in Manoa, and three grandchildren (Alexander Baker, Linda Oathout and Thorfinn Jaunich).
Thomas and Abby first started attending our Church just before Easter this year and are very committed to becoming members when a new minister is on board. Thomas has extolled his honor in being chosen to lead our choir to reach its full glory, to work with the talented Noe Baladad, our pianist, and sees this as an opportunity to expand the services now provided by his meditation/photography website of Hawaiian natural treasures found at TPDJ Photography.
Thomas truly believes that “calmness, compassion, and service to others can be found in seeing the world and enjoying its beauty through music and photography. Images are songs without words.”
