Mr.
Mauna Kea
By Adi W. Kohler with Catherine Bridges Tarleton
This
charming little memoir feels like a friendly chat between
its subject and the reader. With the unpretentious attitude
that made him into a legend in the hotel industry, Adi
W. Kohler tells his life story, from his birth in 1936
in Sudetenland to his retirement as GM of the magnificent Mauna
Kea Beach Hotel in 2000.
Written
with the assistance of his secretary, Catherine Bridges
Tarleton, Mr.
Mauna Kea begins with the kind of anecdote
that helped build Kohler’s reputation. A guest was
devastated to learn that on top of being accidentally put
in a room next door to her ex-husband and his new wife,
she was put in a blue room. She never stayed in blue rooms,
she only stayed in yellow rooms, and this simply would not
do. Anyone who has ever worked in a luxury hotel has encountered
the tempestuous whims of the rich. But although the yellow/blue
travesty was ludicrous, Kohler gave the woman the respect
he felt every guest deserved: he moved the husband, and
then had the bedspreads and watercolors in the woman’s
room switched from blue to yellow. Nothing was too much
to ask for, as far as he was concerned.
Following
a childhood in Germany, where Kohler helped at the family
restaurant, he went on to work in hotels in Germany, France,
the United States, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto
Rico. Throughout, the book is filled with firsts: Kohler’s
first set of golf clubs, which were given to him by Chi
Chi Rodriquez; his first job for Laurance Rockefeller
as a seasonal worker at the Jackson Lake Lodge in the
1960s; and his first impressions of the Mauna Kea Beach
Hotel, where he arrived for what would become a 27-year
stint in 1973.
The
story of the Mauna Kea, entwined with Kohler’s, is
particularly fascinating. This beloved hotel on Hawaii’s
Kohala Coast was the vision of Laurance Rockefeller; it
was a tribute to the fusion of Western and Eastern styles,
as well as a lesson in responsible development. In addition,
the book is filled with plenty of anecdotes about hotel
life and family, the latter focusing on Kohler’s beloved
wife, Chacha. The photos, too, are of note. With their personal
family album feel, they endear you to Kohler, while letting
you know what kind of man he was: unassuming and friendly,
just the kind of host who can easily make anyone feel at
home. |
