A few weeks ago I wrote about several of our local schools having significant anniversaries: Saint Louis (170th), Punahou (175th) and Lahianaluna (185th).
In this column, I thought I’d touch on some of the companies and nonprofits that are passing historic milestones this year.
Kelvin Taketa told me that the Hawaii Community Foundation is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year. It has an interesting story.
The Hawaii Community Foundation had humble beginnings. It began as the Hawaiian Foundation developed by the Hawaiian Trust Co. (Bank of Hawaii) in 1916 through unclaimed deposits left in banks by people who had died without a will.
“In 1987 the Hawaiian Foundation was reorganized with multiple trustees and a board of governors, and renamed the Hawaii Community Foundation,” Taketa says. “It was around this time that Robert E. Black left more than $60 million, the largest legacy gift, to the Hawaiian Community Foundation.
“Black understood the importance of having a community foundation do the work of hundreds of smaller foundations,” Taketa says.
“Thousands of grants have been made to hundreds of organizations across the state to support culture and arts, including the Polynesian Voyaging Society and Hawaii Island YMCA.”
This helped HCF attract other significant donations including the Jack Lord Estate at $40 million and Pierre and Pam Omidyar at $50 million.
Other local families have donated generously to the foundation, including the Kosasa family, and Kathy Richardson on Kauai (who is from the Whitney, Rice, Lyman and Wilcox families).
Today HCF has nearly $550 million in assets, manages more than 750 funds and in 2015 distributed $45 million to Hawaii’s communities.
“HCF has grown to be a community resource on philanthropy and nonprofits,” Taketa says. “The foundation has formed partnerships with people who have a common passion to tackle our community’s tough issues including health care, natural resources, homelessness and so much more.
“The foundation now shares a century of knowledge and experiences, to provide donors a way to maximize their impact of giving. The result is an investment in the well-being of the community for today and years to come.”
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Also celebrating 100th anniversaries this year are Kamaka Hawaii and KTA Super Stores.
Kamaka Hawaii is the recognized leading maker of Hawaii’s gift to the world: the ukulele. Since 1916 they’ve been meticulously handcrafting these exquisite musical instruments.
KTA Super Stores grew from a modest 500-square-foot grocery store — called K. Taniguchi Shoten — into the Big Island’s leading grocer.
Koichi and Taniyo Taniguchi opened a second Hilo store in 1940, which was a good thing because the first store, in the Waiakea area, was wiped out by the 1946 tsunami.
Today they have five stores on the Big Island and employ over 800.
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Celebrating its 75th anniversary this year is Roberts Hawaii. It grew from a taxi business in Hanapepe, Kauai, in 1941 into the largest employee-owned tour and transportation company in the state.
Robert Iwamoto Sr. built his business around U.S. servicemen stationed on Kauai during World War II. He started with two cabs and hired his uncles and aunts as drivers. When he was filming “Blue Hawaii,” Elvis Presley was a passenger.
The company’s chief competitor through the 1970s was Greyhound, which used greyhound dog logos on the sides of its buses. Robert Iwamoto Jr. recalls a childhood trip to the dog races in Mexico where he saw that the greyhounds chased a mechanical rabbit around the track. They never caught the rabbit, Iwamoto observed.
That observation led him to choose the rabbit as his logo in the 1970s. When Greyhound decided to pull out of the Hawaii market a few years later, Roberts sported a waving bunny, bidding farewell to its defeated competitor.
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Zippy’s is celebrating 50 years in business this year. Brothers Charlie and Francis Higa named their restaurant after the ZIP code, which debuted in 1963.
Restaurants need signature dishes and thus Zippy’s created chili. It sells over 110 tons of chili each month. Jason Higa remembers his uncle Charlie driving his station wagon around to their various locations with big pots of chili in the back.
Zippy’s has been running prize giveaways, with 50 trips to Las Vegas, as part of its celebration.
Today it has 24 locations on Oahu, Maui and the Big Island.
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Celebrating 165 years in business is Castle & Cooke. It started, owned or supported several sugar companies, Dole Foods, Hawaiian Tuna Packers, Standard Fruit, the Lodge at Koele and the Manele Bay Hotel.
It founded or supported the Hawaiian Chiefs’ Children’s School (now Royal School) and Punahou School. It built Mililani Town and Royal Kunia.
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Also celebrating 165 years in 2016 is Love’s Bakery. It began in 1851 as Love’s Biscuit & Bread Co. on Nuuanu Avenue downtown.
Robert Love Jr. took over the company when his father died. In 1883 Robert Love Jr. died, and his wife, Fanny Love, took over the business.
From 1945 to 1960 Love’s Bakery flew freshly baked bread to the neighbor islands on its own planes, known as the “flying bakery trucks.”
Today Love’s Bakery produces 206 varieties of bread, 70 varieties of buns and rolls, and 14 varieties of cakes — all baked fresh in Hawaii.
Bob Sigall, author of the Companies We Keep books, looks through his collection of old photos to tell stories each Friday of Hawaii people, places and companies. Email him at Sigall@yahoo.com.
