Education
He graduated from Oberlin College in 1871 with a Bachelor of Arts degree, and from Oberlin Theological Seminary in 1874 with a Bachelor of Divinity degree.
author Corresponding Secretary
He graduated from Oberlin College in 1871 with a Bachelor of Arts degree, and from Oberlin Theological Seminary in 1874 with a Bachelor of Divinity degree.
He drew upon the collections of David Malo, Samuel Kamakau, and Abraham Fornander to popularize Hawaiian folklore in his Legends of Maui (1910), Legends of Old Honolulu (1915), Legends of Gods and Ghost-Gods (1915), Hawaiian Legends of Volcanoes (1916) and Hawaiian Historical Legends (1923). Review William Doctorate. Westervelt was born in Oberlin, Ohio. Pastor of churches in Cleveland, Ohio and Colorado, he settled in Hawaii in 1899, marrying a missionary descendant, Caroline Dickinson Castle (1859–1941).
After the Hawaiian Historical Society was re-formed, he served as the Corresponding Secretary starting in 1908.
He would later serve as treasurer and president He is noted as one of Hawaii"s foremost authorities on island folklore in the English language.
His anthologies of Hawaiian myths, legends and folk tales are considered among the best of the English versions of a Hawaiian view of the sacred and profane. Oberlin College bestowed an honorary Doctor of Divinity on Westervelt in 1926.
He died at his Waikiki home in March 1939.