Trustees of the Hawaii Hospitality Hall of Fame will celebrate the past by adding 14 more hospitality pioneers to a Wall of Fame at a gala later this month, while focusing on the future by
raising funds for the University of Hawaii at Manoa School of Travel Industry Management.
The induction, the first since 2007, takes place at 5:30 p.m. Aug. 29 at the Hawai‘i Convention Center, where the Wall of Fame is adjacent to the fourth-floor ballroom.
The names of the inductees — Kenneth Brown, Chuck Yim Gee, Ed and Lynn Hogan, Danny Kaleikini, Richard “Doc” Kelley, Robert Iwamoto Sr., David McKay, Clara Nelson, Malia Solomon, Stan Takahasi, Dottie Thompson, and Clifton and Spence Weaver — will be enshrined on the wall, where 37 other greats already
have been posthumously honored.
The event comes as the TIM school has struggled to recover enrollment following the COVID-19 pandemic. John C. Crotts, TIM school director, said its fall enrollment is about 190 students, down about half from 2014.
“Layoffs during the pandemic drove people away and many didn’t come back,” he said, adding that international travel restrictions didn’t help either.
Crotts said a local industry-driven focus on recruiting Hawaiian students has emerged, and that TIM is reaching out to local high school students through the nonprofit workforce development program Climb HI.
“I have heard loud and clear that in order for Hawaii tourism to thrive, it must be led by multigenerational Hawaiian leaders who not only are welcoming in serving our guests but also good stewards to what makes Hawaii special — its people, its environment and sense of caring,” he said.
Crotts said the coming renovations to the TIM’s Sunset Reference Center will compliment the ongoing push to gain more students by modernizing the school and its curriculum.
Lee-Ann Choy, principal of Pacific Rim Concepts LLC and president of the Travel Industry Management Alumni Association for Hawaii, said the gala fulfills a gift agreement of one of this year’s Hawaii Hospitality Hall of Fame honorees, Gee, who was TIM’s longtime dean and had such an impact in the lives of students that the alumni chose to host the gala on what
would have been his 90th birthday.
“This dinner is not only to recognize these pioneers and a fundraiser, but a call to all UH TIM alumni,” she said. “(It’s) a reunion for our alumni to come out and share their memories working with and for these pioneers — together we are the building blocks of what our travel industry in Hawaii, Asia and wherever Dean Gee has touched.”
Gee left TIM a six-figure gift to support a display of the history of the TIM school. Gee’s gift also required modernizing the TIM’s Sunset Reference Center, which is the gathering place for TIM and is the U.N. World Tourism Organization’s official depository of tourism research for the Asia-Pacific region.
Crotts said renovations are underway for an audiovisual wall, produced by students, which will display short documentaries that feature the histories of the TIM school, tourism on Waikiki Beach, and tourism legacy inductees and hall of fame honorees. Crotts said plans include adding a teleconferencing platform to bring global experts into the TIM school, and to allow experts from the school to share their talents.
Choy said alumni groups from various years also are purchasing sustainably sourced teak rocking chairs to put on the reference center’s lanai. Choy said so far she has pledges for six out of 12 rocking chairs, which will be named after favorite hospitality mentors.
“These people were all role models for us. It’s a chance to share them with the next generation,” she said. “As the alumni president, we all remember these people and what was the past and how we got here. We need to be the glue to share it with the next generation so it doesn’t die with us.”
Some of the honorees
are part of Hawaii visitor
industry’s far past, while recognizing others like Kelley is more poignant because they represent recent losses.
Kelley, who died Feb. 24, 2022, following a two-decade battle with Parkinson’s disease, didn’t let illness stop him from completing a memoir on his family’s adventures operating Outrigger Hotels, which he led for over 4-1/2 decades.
“Paddling the Outrigger: Inspiration and Insights from the Journey of a Lifetime,” which was written over nearly 40 years, is as much a testament to Kelley’s tenacity as it is a reflection on his family’s role in developing Hawaii tourism and giving back to the
community.
Gary Hogan, the son of honorees Ed and Lynn Hogan, who founded Pleasant Hawaiian Holidays, is proof positive of the deep roots that the honorees established in Hawaii tourism. He has lived in Hawaii for 35 years and still operates one of the family’s hotel assets, the Royal Kona Resort. Gary Hogan also has a hotel management company called Hawaiian Hotels and Resorts, which manages the Kauai Shores, and manages 22 mainland hotels through
Hogan Hospitality Group.
He said his parents were mentors and visionaries, and were among the first to see the potential of offering individual package tours and focusing on travelers from the U.S. West.
“Dad wanted to be in California but Mr. (Henry J. Kaiser) told him, ‘Fish where the fish are,’” he said. “My dad failed miserably in New York and got fired. My dad knew more people west of the Rockies were going to Hawaii so he started his own business with that focus.”
Gary Hogan said his mother, a former Disney animator, handled most of the marketing, and by the time the Hogans sold the family business in 1998, they were spending $30 million a year advertising Hawaii and bringing about 400,000 people a year to the islands.
Tickets to the event can be purchased at cvent.me/7bKBl2. Individual
tickets sell for $250, and sponsor tables may be purchased for $3,000 or $5,000. Honoree family tables are $2,500.
