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Club History
Na Mea Kahiko Hawai'i
Clubhouse
Archived Photos
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Born in Honolulu, Oahu
on October 30, 1930, Larry Kamahele was taken by his parents, while an infant,
to live in Koaa'e, District of Puna on the Big Island of Hawaii.
About a year and half later, the young family moved to the Ke-au-kaha
Homestead in the Hilo District where he grew up as a typical Hawaiian
boy and was known as Little Skipper or `O Pake Sonny.
His mother, being a lei seller, Larry was initiated to making leis as soon as he
could place a needle through a flower or seed. His specialty was the kika
lei, a favorite among the kupunas (older Hawaiians) of that time. He was
also the first boy of the late thirties and early forties period to sell leis at
the departure of the inter-island steamers, Hualalai and Wai'aleale, twice
a week from Hilo.
Larry graduated from the Hawaiian Mission Academy in 1947 and went on to work
his way through and finish Pacific Union College in 1952 with degrees in Biology
and Chemistry. He went on to attend the University of Washington where he
received a degree in Microbiology.
After serving in the army during the Korean Conflict, Larry joined the
laboratory staff of the Seattle-King County Public Health Department. Here he
worked as a microbiologist for over thirty years, working his way up to
Assistant Director and Acting Director of the Health Laboratories. His special
interest in the laboratory was in the laboratory diagnosis of Mycobacterium
species and medical fungi.
Retiring from the Health Laboratory in 1988, Larry was co-founder and C.E.O. of
an asbestos removal company, with offices in Seattle and Nanakuli, O'ahu. He
retired from the asbestos business in 1996.
Larry has many outside interest. Foremost is Hawaiian history and culture. He
had the good fortune of living on the Ke-au-kaha Homestead during the thirties
and forties, when many of the old kupunas were still alive, and had the
privilege of being involved in the beautiful old language, spoken at that time,
and listening to the old stories, mostly in the Hawaiian language. He has always
been proud of his Hawaiian heritage even during the period prior to the sixties
when people were reluctant, at times, that they were Hawaiians. Though he has
been living away from Hawaii for fifty years, his heart is still there. It has
been helped by his extensive library of over 850 books relating to the history
and culture of Hawaii and 650 records, tapes, and CDs of old Hawaiian music.
Other interest include fly-fishing and at present, spectator sports.
Larry is one of the founders of the Wakinikona Hawaiian Club, Inc., established
in 1962 and incorporated in 1963, and was its president for 16 years, mostly in
its early formative years. He has been an advisor on Hawaiian culture to the
State of Washington Burke Museum and has given lectures, on early contributions
by Hawaiians to the settling of the Northwest in the early 1800s, at the
University of Washington. He is a member of the Pacific American Foundation and
was its editor of the Pacific American Review from 1998-1999. He is also
co-founder and a member of the directorship of the Northwest American Pacific
Association.
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