Hawaii

We’ve been in Hawaii since Feb. 8 (after a LONG series of flights from Iowa), and I have to say this is one of the most culturally and geologically diverse places I’ve ever been. It’s my first trip to Hawaii — the only state I hadn’t visited before. So it’s been an interesting experience.

We have had a warm welcome from our Iowa State alumni connections: Don Hess, Garret Pick, and Jerry Allen. Yesterday afternoon, when we met with Don (’65 distributed studies), the staff of the Battleship Missouri Memorial in Pearl Harbor rolled out the red carpet for us. Don is the former president and chief operating officer of the memorial, so maybe the public relations staff was bending over backwards in respect for Don, but deep down I think they just have incredible customer relations and give everyone the royal treatment. At any rate, we had a great afternoon with Don and I’m anxious to share more about his story with you later.

Today we met with Garret (’93 electrical engineering) and Jerry (’55 industrial engineering) in their homes and also had a lovely time doing a photo shoot with Garret on the beach (above). I am constantly amazed at the talent and success of Iowa State alumni — and I find it so interesting where they’ve all ended up. In this case, they’re all in Hawaii, and it’s just been my good fortune to meet them here. Garret is a software engineer and Jerry is a retired vice president for corporate planning for C. Brewer and Co. Ltd. on the island and currently an owner and manager of a macadamia orchard.  Yum!

I’ll post more later — we’re meeting Jerry again tomorrow on the Big Island. Jim, of course, takes all the professional photos but you’ll just have to make do with mine for now.

Aloha!