Kohala Coast owes debt to pioneer

By Kelly Yamanouchi
Advertiser Staff Writer

Laurance S. Rockefeller, who died Sunday, had a lasting impact on Hawai'i's hotel industry when he developed a Big Island luxury resort in the 1960s that blended into the surrounding environment instead of dominating it as many Waikiki hotels of that time did.

Rockefeller, the grandson of oil baron John D. Rockefeller, died at age 94 in New York City.

One of Laurance Rockefeller's most notable accomplishments in Hawai'i was the building of the Mauna Kea Beach Hotel, which opened in 1965. He sold it in 1978.

"His philosophy was to bring man and nature together in harmony and I think that was his whole life's work," said Bob Butterfield, former managing director at the Mauna Kea Beach Hotel, who worked with Rockefeller for 15 years. He said Rockefeller was responsible for the absence of visible utility lines between the Mauna Kea Beach Hotel and the airport in Kona.

Butterfield recalls a time he stood with Rockefeller at the end of the beach at the Mauna Kea hotel site in South Kohala. "He said if you stand just right, you can't see it at all," Butterfield said. "He meant the hotel fit right into the environment. I just admire him tremendously."

Kenny Brown, a local philanthropist who knew Rockefeller, called him "a fellow who had the imagination and the courage to put significant investment in the Kohala Coast."

"We were so lucky to have him as a pioneer up there," Brown said. "What he did by building the hotel is he gave everybody an example of good taste and it was sort of a wonderful inspiration to all the other developers. Because they felt that he had done something so good that they couldn't demean it by putting junk stuff in there."

Peter Shaindlin, chief operating officer at the Halekulani hotel in Waikiki, who had Rockefeller as a mentor at resorts that Rockefeller developed in the Caribbean, said Rockefeller's "vision involved a huge respect for the people and culture and environment of where he created his resorts."

Patti Cook, owner of Cook's Discoveries and docent of weekly art and island history tours at the Mauna Kea Beach Hotel, said Rockefeller "had great faith that Hawai'i was going to be a hugely popular destination" at a time when, she recalls, "the Big Island was really nowheres-ville."

Rockefeller's company, Rockresorts, also once managed the Kapalua Bay Hotel. Outside of Hawai'i, Rockefeller donated his family's property in Jackson Hole, Wyo., to the federal government and turned over property to create Virgin Islands National Park.

Rockefeller became largely known for his conservation efforts.

Grady Timmons, spokesman for the Nature Conservancy here, said Rockefeller was part of a group with Charles Lindbergh that hatched a plan to add to Haleakala National Park the Kipahulu area extending from mountain to sea.

"He fell in love with Kipahulu," Timmons said. They held a fund-raising campaign in New York to raise $1 million to buy the property and then convinced the state to donate its part of Kipahulu, Timmons said.

The Kipahulu purchase in 1969 was the first land acquisition that the Nature Conservancy made in Hawai'i, Timmons said. In 1998 Rockefeller gave another 52 acres at Puhilele Point to the park.

Rockefeller donated about $1.6 million to arts and culture activities at the East-West Center and was the center's first major private individual donor. He was also the first senior counselor to the East-West Center Foundation Board and served on the board in 1985-90.

Rockefeller "did good things for the East-West Center," said Geoffrey White, senior fellow of the East-West Center's Pacific Islands Development Program. Rockefeller's contributions went to a Mauna Kea Art Book, cultural studies and a Dialogue of Civilizations project.

Brown said Rockefeller had "a combination of huge ability financially as well as a huge moral sense."

"He didn't carry his wealth as a burden. To him it was a marvelous responsibility. To him it was a responsibility to do something and to make the world better," Brown said. "He was a fascinating person who was aware of the exotic philosophies of life — doing zen and stuff like that — without being flaky."

He was "a great product of American culture," Brown said.

Reach Kelly Yamanouchi at kyamanouchi@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-2470.