I wrote two columns earlier this year about companies that are having significant anniversaries this year. I think it’s important to celebrate the people and organizations that have been able to serve the residents of the state for so many years.
Here are some more companies that are passing significant milestones. One was founded with the help of a king, while others sprang from the entrepreneurship of immigrants who left the plantations to start their own companies. It’s a diversity I appreciate.
1891: 130 years ago
Hawaiian Electric
Hawaiian Electric was founded in 1886 due to the love of science that motivated King David Kalakaua to visit Thomas Edison as part of his 1881 around-the-world trip. He asked him to help bring electricity to Hawaii.
In 1886 he did, and three bulbs were illuminated at Iolani Palace. This was four years before the White House had electricity. Here are a few other interesting things about Hawaiian Electric.
When Hawaiian Electric began in 1891, the rate was 1 cent an hour per light bulb.
The Egan & Gunn store in the new Brewer building on Fort Street was the first to use electricity, on the evening of Aug. 22, 1891. A crowd of people gathered to see the steady, brilliant light that flooded the store.
Shelee Kimura, who on Jan. 1 will become president and CEO of Hawaiian Electric, will be the first woman to run this company.
“Kimura was instrumental in developing Hawaiian Electric’s 2015-2020 transformation strategy,” company spokesman Peter Rosegg told me. “She has guided the leap from a traditional utility model to a clean energy leader in the industry.”
More than 90,000 customers now have rooftop solar systems today, which helps Hawaii move away from the state’s dependence on imported oil.
Hawaiian Electric is celebrating its 130th anniversary this month.
1906: 115 years ago
Kamaka Ukulele
Not long after Portuguese immigrants invented the ukulele, Samuel Kamaka Sr. began making them from koa wood in the basement of his home in Kaimuki.
The year was 1906, and he called his enterprise Kamaka Ukulele and Guitar Works. In 1921 he opened a shop at 1814 S. King St., about where Times Supermarket is today in McCully.
In the 1920s he made some ukulele that looked to his friends like pineapples. Eight years later the design was perfected and patented as the Pineapple Ukulele. Sales all over the world soared and have never stopped.
1921: 100 years ago
Nisshodo Candy Store
Like many of our entrepreneurs, Asatoro Hirao emigrated from Hiroshima, Japan, to Hawaii over 100 years ago. He left the sugar plantation and opened a store near Aala Park where he made mochi.
In 1984 it moved to a well-hidden location at 1095 Dillingham Blvd. Today it’s in the hands of Mike Hirao, a grandson of the founder.
1941: 80 years ago
Roberts Hawaii
Roberts Hawaii Tours and Transportation was founded in 1941 by Robert Iwamoto Sr. as a one-man taxi company in Hanapepe, Kauai.
It’s grown to four islands, 900 vehicles and 1,400 employees. The company’s rabbit logo, running on the side of its buses, can be found waving on the back.
Who’s it waving to? A former competitor, the Greyhound dog.
1961: 60 years ago
Lex Brodie’s Tire Co.
Lex Brodie was fired by Hawaiian Pineapple when a first attempt to make the company’s own cans failed. Undaunted, he opened a service station at the new Windward City Shopping Center in 1961.
He was the first to offer competitive pricing on tires, and customers from all over Oahu sought him out. He moved to 701 Queen St. in 1964, and the company now has five locations in Hawaii.
In the 1960s Brodie attended a mainland tire convention. He came across a wooden sign of a caveman making a wheel out of a rock. It’s about 1 by 2 feet in size.
“I had been looking for a good logo and bought him for $25. It ran on two D cell batteries,” Brodie recalled.
They called him “Little Joe” and put him in the TV commercials. Little Joe was popular, and Brodie had thousands of 3-inch decals made with his image. “We asked all the drivers if we could put them on their rear bumper.”
“One day a young boy asked if he could have one, and of course I gave him one,” Brodie recalled. “He just stared back at me. ‘What do you say when someone gives you something?’ I asked.
“His mom elbowed him but the boy was silent. ‘Say thank you,’ she said. Silence. ‘No,’ I replied, ‘say thank you very much.’”
Later, Brodie was reflecting on how courtesy seemed to be lacking in Honolulu, so he decided to thank his customers for watching his commercials. “That’s what we’re thanking you for, for watching the commercial,” Brodie said.
“The commercials with Little Joe and ‘thank you very much’ were a hit. Everywhere I went, people would say, ‘There’s the thank you man!’”
To further Brodie’s interest in teaching civility to our children, in 2004 the Lex Brodie’s Foundation began issuing Thank You Very Much Awards to Hawaii’s schoolchildren.
1961: 60 years ago
Rainbow Drive-In
Seiju Ifuku served in the 100th Battalion, 442nd Regimental Combat Team as a cook during World War II.
Edward Asato said that after the war Ifuku opened a small place in Chinatown called Welcome Inn, followed by Kalakaua Drive-In on the corner of Kalakaua Avenue and Ala Moana Boulevard.
His plate lunches cost less than 50 cents and were popular with local people. Carhops served those who dined in their cars.
“After 11 years the rent in Waikiki got exorbitantly high, so Ifuku was forced to find another location,” Asato said. “Rainbow Drive-In opened on Oct. 2, 1961 — 60 years ago this month — in Kapahulu.
“The rainbows over his home in Manoa Valley and their spectrum of colors inspired the naming of his business, which has since expanded and flourished into a multimillion-dollar enterprise.”
1981: 40 years ago
CrimeStoppers
Bob Robinson, retired president of the Chamber of Commerce Hawaii, said the father of CrimeStoppers Hawaii was Richard Davi, president of Kapiolani Health Care System.
CrimeStoppers allows the public to anonymously report information on crime and suspects. Rewards of up to $1,000 are offered.
“Davi, on business on the mainland, telephoned me about hearing of the CrimeStoppers program in Phoenix,” and wanted to start one here. Would the Chamber of Commerce underwrite it?
“I agreed, and Davi put a great deal of effort into creating the nonprofit corporation. He got the support of the business community and the funds to award those giving tips to the police, which resulted in solving crimes. He devoted great effort, and in the beginning, guided the program almost single-handedly.
“CrimeStoppers generated 78 valid informant phone calls to police in its first week.
“Many helped, but the father of it all was Dick Davi.”
Congratulations to these organizations that have done so much to make Hawaii a better place.
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Have a question or suggestion? Contact Bob Sigall, author of the five “The Companies We Keep” books, at Sigall@Yahoo.com.
