Billionaire Laurance S. Rockefeller set a standard for resort hotel design in the Islands during the 1960s by demanding that his Mauna Kea Beach Hotel respect the people, culture and environment of Hawai'i.
He was a pioneer of development along the South Kohala coast at a time when it was considered well off the vacation map. But Rockefeller had faith that it would become a hugely popular tourist destination.
Rockefeller, the grandson of Standard Oil founder John D. Rockefeller, used his family's fortune to fund conservation efforts as well as aviation enterprises.
In 1960, Gov. William Quinn asked Rockefeller to help find new resort areas in an effort to break up the hotel congestion in Waikiki. Rockefeller had dealt with similar issues in Puerto Rico.
On Feb. 4, 1961, Rockefeller announced that he would build a 100-room hotel and golf course at Kauna'oa Beach. He had fallen in love with pristine Kauna'oa Bay and wanted to disturb the setting as little as possible. The resort is the Mauna Kea Beach Hotel, which blended into its natural surroundings rather than dominating the landscape.
It opened in 1965. Rockefeller was pleased that the hotel fit into the natural surroundings so well that a person could stand at the end of the beach at the Mauna Kea hotel site and practically not see the resort. Rockefeller sold it in 1978.
The resort's golf course, designed by master builder Robert Trent Jones, helped make Hawai'i a popular golf vacation destination. The course features a much-photographed par-3 with a tee shot over water that is considered one of the world's greatest golf holes.
Rockefeller died in 2004 in New York City. He was 94.
