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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Sunday, February 9, 2003

OUR HONOLULU
Academic picks his cars well

By Bob Krauss
Advertiser Columnist

Dr. Doug Oliver, dean of Pacific anthropologists, has owned three cars in his lifetime. Since he'll turn 90 tomorrow, that's an average of 30 years per car. The number of books he has written — 20 — far exceeds the number of his cars.

Actually, his 1970 Volvo, the only car he ever bought new, has done better than that. It's 33 years old. That's why I think the story of one of Our Honolulu's academic legends and his cars deserves telling.

He paid cash for every one of them. "My parents taught me never to buy on credit," he said. This can be a problem on an anthropologist's salary.

As a Boy Scout he was one of three invited on an expedition to Africa. This led to a scholarship at Harvard. "I was interested in Egyptology but the professor was out of town," he said. So Oliver went across the street and took anthropology.

Then he spent two years living with the natives of Bougainville, Papua New Guinea, on a grant of $70 a month. This led to a job as lecturer at Harvard at a huge increase in salary, $100 a month. At last, he was able to buy a car.

"It was a Dodge, used," he said. "I think I paid $300 for it."

Natural brilliance accounted for his rapid rise up the academic ladder. Harvard granted him a full professorship in the middle 1950s at $4,600 year. Did he squander his wealth on a new Cadillac? No, siree. He bought a used Ford.

By this time Oliver was spending every other year in Tahiti, which resulted in his definitive, three-volume work, "Ancient Tahitian Society."

When the East-West Center opened in the 1960s, Chancellor Alexander Spoehr invited Oliver to impart his vast knowledge of the Pacific to center students. Spoehr went out of town so Oliver rented his Makiki Heights mansion for $300 a month. In the process, he fell in love with Hawai'i.

Word got to officials at the University of Hawai'i. In 1970 they created a special chair in anthropology for Oliver to lure him to the UH faculty. So he bought a house at Black Point for $75,000 and splurged on a brand new car, a Volvo station wagon, $3,800.

This automobile now has 110,000 miles on it, single owner, and runs like a top, 12 miles to the gallon.

Over the past week, Oliver has given it two coats of paint. He got a quote of $200 to do the job but decided to save the money and paint it himself for $15. You see, the Volvo has a few dents. Since Oliver moved to the Royal Iolani, the car has been parked beside two new Mercedes and a block-long Lincoln Continental. He was getting a little self-conscious.

With a paint job, you can hardly see the rust spots. Some of the stuffing is coming out of the upholstery in the front seats but the back seat is just like new.

Oliver thinks he might celebrate his birthday by giving the car to a public radio station if they'll take it. Or he might drive it over the Pali and have a Viking funeral.

Reach Bob Krauss at 525-0873.