Promoter presented hula pre-statehood

A major promoter of hula before statehood has died.

Kent Ghirard, whose post-World War II hula dancers toured Japan and performed in Chicago, died Monday at the Queen’s Medical Center. He was 92.

Friends said although he was not of Hawaiian descent, Ghirard fell in love with Hawaiian music and the hula at age 12 during a family vacation to Oahu in 1930 and began learning the hula while living in California.

He moved to Hawaii after graduating from Stanford University, set up a hula studio in Waikiki, and eventually created the Hula Nani Girls, who performed throughout Waikiki from 1949 through 1961.

"He was wonderful. He was very respectful," said Winnie Naihe, a dancer with his troupe from 1950 to 1954.

Naihe said the dancers performed for cruise and military ships and also at Tripler Army Medical Center, sometimes to wounded Korean war soldiers and soldiers who weren’t expected to live.

"This was very heart-warming," she said.

His dancers performed at major Waikiki hotels and with well-known Hawaiian legends, including Alfred Apaka, Lena Machado, Ray Kinney, Nona Beamer and Gabby Pahinui.

He led the first post-World War II Hawaiian hula group to tour Japan in 1955.

His dance groups also were the headliners at the Polynesian Room in Chicago’s Edgewater Beach Hotel.

Ghirard was honored in 2008 with the second annual I Olamauka Hula award from Hula Grill Waikiki, recognizing those who have perpetuated hula.

A private scattering of ashes will be held, without a funeral, at his request.