George Nakashima passes...

Regrettably, George Nakashima passed away last Wednesday evening.

We were very much looking forward to meeting him and seeing his work and hearing his stories of the days when he was building the Polynesian palaces we all love. The Mai Kai was looking forward to having him back in the place he helped put together. He seemed in good health and spirits when I last spoke to him.

I'll post more news when I have it.

Oh how sad! He was one of the guys I always regretted not getting in touch with personally. I knew of him through Gabe and Armet + Davis, and thus put him in the BOT to give him his due credit. I was thrilled to hear he was getting some satisfaction out of the revival and was really glad he was going to come to the Hukilau. I wanted to meet him in person, or at least have a dedicated BOT be given to him.

This is an odd moment for me, because as Sven knows, we had a discussion a few years ago as to whether Geroge was alive or dead when I was doing my research on the Mauna Loa (George Nakashima was the designer of the Mauna Loa in Detroit. If you want to read about a tiki palace long gone that will make you weep, read about that in Locating Tiki). Looking online while I was doing my Mauna Loa research, I had read that he had died, but Sven assured me he was alive and kicking. Now I am sorry I didn't get to meet him.

His services were this morning. He was 80 yeard old and in good health. His death was a freak accident. He fell and hit his head. There is another George Nakashima, a furntiure designer who died in 1990, which may have confused you. George had a large family and at his services there was a great display of his work. The BOT was on display there opened to the Mai Kai section. One of his drawings of the Mauna Loa was given to a lady who had contacted in the beginning about George, and she will be bringing it to Hukilau or sending it to me to scan and print to bring. She will see if there is anything else she can bring to share. Mr. Chin of Chin Tiki was at the services as well. It is very unfortunate George did not get to experience the aloha we would have shared with him next month.

This is truly sad news.

George had been Emailing me lately, and was very enthusiastic and happy about the revival of interest in his work.

He seemed like a really nice guy; I really looked forward to meeting him in person.

He was in the process of going through TRT and making me a list of all of the places in it that he designed. I think he was at 17 and counting.

We must raise a toast to the man at Hukilau, if not at al Tiki events before then as well.

He fell and hit his head...!!!? I am speechless. What an irony. Here he is at the brink of having his life's work appreciated and his accomplishments shared with eager believers, and -poof-, god snuffs out his light! Not fair.

Wow. What a loss. We were fortunate enough to meet George N. at the Tiki event at Chin's in Detroit. I was impressed—such a nice friendly guy. He bought a copy of Tiki Quest and had great things to say about it. I was flattered. He was very kind and seemed very enthused about the revival of Tiki and appreciation of his work.

Unfortunately, isn't this always the case? When someone who was fundemental to an art movement or aesthetic style finally begins to experience a re-examination and appreciation of their contribution, they are gone before they have the chance to really enjoy it and share their wisdom and experiences. I guess it reminds us that we should cherish the folks who are still with us. What a shame.

This is terribly sad. Like tikifish, I am completely enchanted by the little that I've been able to learn about the Detroit Mauna Loa, and it would have been an honor to shake the hand of the man who was responsible for designing both it AND our beloved Mai Kai. It sounds like at least he was able to know the extent to which his design work has been respected and cherished, even if he hadn't yet had the opportunity to really experience it with us at the Mai Kai. I hope that some of his family can join us, so they can see how much his work has touched us all.