After high school, he returned to New York to attend college, earning a bachelor’s degree in Pharmacy, then a doctorate in Clinical Pharmacy, later studying marketing and “Medical Informatics.”

He met his wife-to-be, the former Faye Fujisaki, who grew up in Kaimuki and was living her dream career in New York, dancing and performing on Broadway.

In 1990, the couple moved back to Hawai‘i where Dexter was later part of the clinical information systems team at Kaiser Permanente when Hawai‘i hospitals were jointly developing programs to access and store medical records.

In 2012, at the age of 60, Dexter became a Minister’s Lay Assistant, hoping to better understand the teachings and doctrinal rituals of Shin Buddhism and wanting to help Honpa Hongwanji Hawai‘i Betsuin.

His commitment to pursue his Tokudo ordination began in earnest after Faye Mar passed away on Oct. 3, 2024, the same day that Bishop Toshiyuki Umitani sent an email about a possible Tokudo shurai, or training, in Kyoto, scheduled in October, 2025.

“My motivation was to honor Faye’s commitment to the Hongwanji Shin Buddhist path, continuing forward across the ‘two rivers’ and to heal my grieving heart,” Dexter said.

In March and June of 2025, he attended four Buddhist Churches of America two-night training sessions where he met 10 fellow aspirants, followed by training in Hawai‘i from April through August, working regularly with Hawai‘i ministers.

Were the pre-Tokudo training sessions necessary? Absolutely, he said.

“As a 76-year-old non-Japanese speaker/reader, non-singer/chanter, I had major disadvantages to overcome,” he said. “I found a voice coach to teach me the basics of pitch, pace, breath, pronunciation and rhythm control.”

By mid-September, he transformed into an eager Tokudo candidate — arriving early and staying a week after his ordination, the longest of all three candidates.

“The 11 days of training began at 5:50 a.m. with roll call, followed by chores including scrubbing toilets, vacuuming corridors and classrooms, sweeping and dusting the main temple decks and stairs,” he said.

“Meals were nourishing that needed to be eaten in 10 minutes in silence as a group — followed by morning classes then afternoon classes and another facility cleanup.

“The entire schedule was a carefully orchestrated training of mind and body to create an atmosphere and attitude of sacred responsibility to become a Hongwanji Shin Buddhist priest,” Mar said.

“The awareness of representing our 800-year-old tradition and our mission to learn and share the teachings was reinforced constantly.

“To perform rituals under pressure with composure, precision and polish were scrutinized by strict, expert instructors who taught with kindness and understanding.

“The shurai seemed a perfect balance of intense ritual, doctrinal, mundane, sacred, historical and transcendent moments.

“This was a powerful, profound and memorable experience that I hope other Hawai‘i Hongwanji Shin fellow travelers have the opportunity to go through someday.”

His family took the children to church every Sunday. Young Rod attended Sunday School, participated in Jr. YBA, and eventually taught sixth graders the Dharma.

After high school, he earned degrees in Engineering and Business and served as an Army officer during the Vietnam era in Germany. He didn’t attend church regularly and focused on his career.

He did get married at Wahiawa Hongwanji to his wife, Cheryl, 54 years ago, returning to Germany for a week.

Starting as a systems engineer at IBM, he worked his way up the corporate ladder, held management positions and was assigned to Japan for two and a half years with his young family.

“Japan is a country deeply rooted in Shinto and Buddhist values. It is a way of life centered on morality and discipline. It is a country with massive population centers and a mass transit system second to none,” he said.

“Living in such an environment requires discipline, kindness, timeliness and compassion.

“The Tokudo process applies these principles to create an artificially stressful environment that reflects the discipline and historical significance of the Jodo Shinshu founder, Shinran Shonin.”

Among the 13 international aspirants were a physician, scholars and entrepreneurs from all over the country and 24 Japanese aspirants, many who came from temple families.

Rod was the oldest among them. On ordination day, he turned 80.

When his good friend, Dexter Mar, lost his wife on Oct. 3, 2024, Dexter asked Rod to join him on the Tokudo journey. Several years before, Dexter was influential in convincing Rod to participate in the Lay Assistant program.

“With my wife’s encouragement, I accepted, without realizing how demanding the journey would be,” he said. “For a year, I learned more about Shinran Shonin and Jodo Shinshu than ever before, gaining a profound respect for the ministers who nurture spiritual growth in our communities.”

Raymond Takiue Jr., Dexter Mar and Rod practiced daily individually and twice a week with Rev. David Fujimoto at Mō’ili’ili Hongwanji. The path they began a year ago and ended with 11 days in relative isolation, tested their endurance, discipline and teamwork.

And it created an unbreakable bond among them.

“I cannot adequately express my gratitude to my teammates, my instructors and all who supported us through this process,” he said. “It was truly a journey of a lifetime.”

Around that time, as the electronics retailer closed its doors, Raymond’s Tokudo journey began.

A native of Kona and the youngest of the three Hawai‘i Tokudo aspirants, he also majored in computer science in college and later switched to marketing.

At Mōili’ili Hongwanji, he served as president from 2018-2021 and with his background in computers, Raymond handled the temple’s IT needs for years, not only during Sunday services but also before Covid, he started transposing all the readings, sutras and gathas to PowerPoint slides.

When the quarantine hit, Mōili’ili was ready to switch from in-person services to Zoom without much difficulty.

“When my store closed, Headquarters announced there was an overseas Tokudo session that a group of people were studying for,” he said. “Our class included Kerry Kiyohara, Barbara Brennan, Charlene Kihara and the late Sherman Thompson.

“We started studying together for a year and a half at Hawai‘i Betsuin because the majority of trainees were from Betsuin.”

Aspirants were told that memorizing the Shoshinge would probably take up most of their time, so they were welcome to practice with Rev. Yuika Hasebe each morning at 8 in the Betsuin temple as well as study the liturgy with Rev. Tatsuo Muneto.

Temporarily jobless, Raymond started studying intensely until the City and County of Honolulu hired him as a police radio dispatcher trainee. Tokudo training came to a halt.

As a new employee on probation with limited accrued time off, he stopped his Tokudo studies, only to soon realize that the dispatcher job wasn’t for him.

But with his background in IT and managerial experience, it wasn’t long before he landed a job as a service director at O’ahu Mortuary.

“I asked them, ‘What’s the job description?’ and they said it required setting up for a (funeral) service, handling the audio/visual and occasionally, emcee when necessary and I thought, I do that for temple every week,” he said. “I  would be getting paid for it? Sure!”

Despite his having had more months of training than Dexter and Rod — even though briefly interrupted — it was Raymond who admired his colleagues’ “sheer grit” during Tokudo training.

“After Rod completed his kadai (individual) testing on chanting Shoshinge and wasans, he volunteered to lead a Japanese-style funeral service and one of the arguably, newest ceremony for us in Hawai‘i and for the BCA candidates,” Raymond said.

“And in another instance, we used Faye Mar’s name for the aspirations in the funeral service that we conducted on the one-year anniversary of her passing.

“Since it was done in English, I’m not sure how many of the Japanese candidates understood its significance, but it was one of the moments that choked me up.”

The day before the ceremony, one of the Japanese han, or groups, gathered in the cafeteria to congratulate each other for making it through the training and despite his limited Japanese, Raymond joined them.

“The camaraderie and fellowship of the practicing and our studies over the past 11 days was memorable,” he said.

For the final ceremony, several rehearsals were held. Instructed to sit in alphabetical order, with “Takiue” last in line, he wondered where the instructors and audience  would be, realizing that the last person in line would be most noticed and visible.

“Fortunately we made it through with no major hitches,” Raymond said. “It seemed so surreal that we had completed it.”