Stories of notable people, places filled column in 2014

With the new year just beginning, I thought since this is a look-back type of column, that I’d look back at 2014 and some of my favorite stories in Rearview Mirror last year.

» I began the year with Barack Obama, since the first family was vacationing in the islands then, as now.

Sam Cooke told me that the future president, then a student at Punahou School, came to a mock tea party photoshoot for the yearbook at his house one day at the invitation of his daughter, Cathy.

"Included in the group was a young black man with a large afro who was in her class. He introduced himself as Barry Obama. I had no idea that one day he would be president of the United States."

The following month, I wrote about the old Kuhio Grill in Moiliili. Former Gov. Neil Abercrombie often went there in the late 1950s and early 1960s with the University of Hawaii’s first African foreign student, Barack Obama Sr. The two became friends.

"If Barack was in the room, you knew he was there," Abercrombie said. "He was very voluble. He always had an opinion and you could count on his sharing it with you. He had a rich, booming, resonant voice. He was full of vigor and a joy to be around. The KG atmosphere was perfect for him. Like him, it was open, lively, loud and boisterous."

» Shirley Temple Black passed away in February. Michele Hamada remembered her father, Raymond Y.C. Won, telling her that Shirley Temple visited the Dole Pineapple Cannery where he worked.

"He said that all work came to a complete stop, and everyone rushed to catch a glimpse of her. Throughout the years," Hamada recounted, "he always told us of that story, and thought that was the only time that production at the cannery came to a complete halt."

» In March, I penned a story of Hawaii’s first municipal course in Palolo Valley, which existed from 1931 to 1942. I found a golfer who played the course when he was young. Jack Omuro won the 1960 Manoa Cup and was inducted into the Golf Hall of Fame in 1998.

"We’d only have two or three balls, usually what we found on the course, and we’d have to keep our eyes on them. If we lost them, our friends wouldn’t have an extra one for us."

The ninth hole, a par 3 across Palolo Avenue, was problematic. "If you hit the ball wrong, it could roll down Palolo Avenue all the way to Waialae" a mile away, he joked. "There weren’t many cars on the road then."

» In April, we ran a story about the atmospheric nuclear tests that were conducted over Johnston Island from 1958-1962. Even though it’s 700 miles away, the fireballs could be seen in Hawaiian skies. Locals held "atomic parties" as they watched the sky light up green, "as bright as daylight," one recalled, "fading minute by minute through yellow to orange and then red, as if the end of the world was happening."

» My May column about Judd Street prompted many comments. The street was named for Dr. Gerrit Parmele Judd (1803-1873) a missionary doctor who came to Hawaii at the age of 24. He was an adviser to Kamehameha III and one of the founders of Punahou School in 1841.

Judd built what he called "Sweet Home" on the Ewa/mauka side of Nuuanu and Judd streets in 1857.

Gerrit and his wife Laura’s oldest daughter was born on July 5, 1831, at the Mission Houses. Chiefess Elizabeth Kinau, a daughter of Kamehameha I and wife of Kamehameha II, showed up hours later demanding to adopt one of the first Caucasian girls born in the islands. The parents refused and the angry princess left in a huff.

Kinau returned at her christening a few weeks later and insisted she be named after her, and this time the parents relented, naming her Elizabeth Kinau Judd. Chiefess Kinau showed much interest in the baby and visited nearly every day.

» One of my favorite columns of the year tied Elvis Presley, Tom Moffatt, Ron Jacobs, Aku, the old Civic Auditorium and roller derby into one, bizarre story.

Jacobs and Moffatt made a deal with the roller derby promoter to fill seats on the first and slowest night of the competition. It earned them $3,000 each, and with it, they bought brand new 1957 Ford Skyliners.

When Presley came to Hawaii a few months later, they dressed up another deejay, Donn Tyler, in an Elvis outfit and jet black wig. They put him in the back seat of Jacob’s Ford Skyliner with the top down, with another man dressed as Col. Tom Parker, his manager, sitting next to him.

Jacobs "gave them a tour of Honolulu" while Moffatt "reported" where they were live on KHVH radio. It put the town in a frenzy.

Afterwards, Parker told them he loved the whole thing and invited them to emcee Presley’s concerts the next day.

» Last July, I wrote about how Duke Kahanamoku used his surfboard to save 12 people when their boat capsized in Corona Del Mar, Calif. Since then, lifeguards around the world have used surfboards and saved millions of lives.

» In August, I explored how city planners considered Kahaluu the site of Oahu’s "second city" in 1964. They planned eight artificial island parks around the island. The Magic Island peninsula was the only one built, but others were planned in Keehi Lagoon, Waimanalo, Waikane and Waiahole.

In 2014, there were other articles I enjoyed researching and writing, such as how Shigeo Shigenaga founded the Kaimana Beach Hotel, and how an automobile tunnel through Manoa to Maunawili was considered in 1941.

I discovered that Sony began with an electronic rice cooker on the third floor of Shirokiya’s Tokyo department store. If you missed any of these articles, you can find them online in our archives.

Thank you for reading the column and for sharing your experiences with me. I hope to find even better stories in 2015. Have a great new year.

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CLARIFICATION: The circa-1978 photo accompanying this article shows Barack Obama and his Punahou School classmates at a mock tea party in the home of Samuel Cooke. The photo was shot for the school’s yearbook. An earlier version of this “Rearview Mirror” column described the event as an actual tea party.