Some 41/2 months after he became church president, President Howard W. Hunter traveled to Hawaii to install Eric B. Shumway as president of BYU-Hawaii.
This November 1994 installation, the first ever attended by the church's president, was another in the long line of close ties President Hunter had with the Laie, Hawaii, school and the adjoining Polynesian Cultural Center.He represented the university's board of trustees at the inauguration.
As a member of the Council of the Twelve, President Hunter was a trustee of the college, which was originally called the Church College of Hawaii, from 1959 to 1975. He also was instrumental in the successful development of the Polynesian Cultural Center, serving as president and board chairman from January 1965 to April 1976.
He received an honorary doctorate of humanities from the college in June 1985. At that time, he praised the accomplishments of previous graduates in their home cultures and noted that "making a better world is the purpose of this school."
When the Church College opened in September 1955, Hawaii still was not a major tourist destination, and for many of the students, getting to Hawaii by plane cost an enormous sum. They needed employment in order to stay there.
In 1959, the students staged a highly successful production of Polynesian songs and dances at a theater in Honolulu, and the dream many college leaders had of a center where students could present similar shows and share their native customs began to take shape.
As a result, the center was completed and dedicated in October 1963, a 16-acre complex where some 1,000 Polynesians demonstrated the culture and customs of their islands at six different villages and a 750-seat dinner theater.
But tourists did not immediately flock to the center, and tour operators and other convention and tourism officials had to be convinced that the center could become a major tourist attraction.
In January 1965, some 15 months after the center opened, Elder Hunter was appointed by the First Presidency as the center's president and chairman of the board, the first general authority to hold this position. The challenge was managing a program that brought together peoples of diverse cultures, temperaments and viewpoints and helping to fulfill President David O. McKay's vision of introducing visitors to Polynesia and its cultures as well as to the church.
Losses were steadily reduced, and eventually tour operators promoted the center. Awareness of the center increased in August 1966 when the show was presented for four nights at the Hollywood Bowl in California.
"In the 50 years of its history," a Los Angeles Times music critic reported, "it is unlikely that a Hollywood Bowl has ever been the scene of a more uniquely beautiful spectacle than `Festival Polynesia.' "
Portions of the show were taped for "The Ed Sullivan Show" and seen by millions of viewers nationwide. Within a year, attendance at the center increased dramatically, and before long, seating capacity in the theater was increased from 850 to 1,400. Many of the performances were sold out.
By 1971, nearly 1 million people visited the center annually. The result was a new 2,500-seat theater, a large dining hall for a nightly buffet, several new cultural attractions and service and administrative buildings.
President Hunter, who was succeeded as president and board chairman by Elder Marvin J. Ashton in April 1976, could look with satisfaction on the center's accomplishments. By this time, the college had been renamed Brigham Young University-Hawaii, and the center and the adjoining Hawaii Temple were fulfilling President McKay's prophecy that the area was "influencing not thousands, not tens of thousands, but millions of people."