"I'm finding it very satisfying to do these things," Thompson said. Helping
his daughter and two sons build homes within a half mile of each other also is
"fun work. And being around younger people keeps the mind going." 
Since 1976, a 60-foot double-hull replica of canoes
used 1,500 years ago by the original Polynesian immigrants to the Hawaiian
Islands has retraced migration patterns in the Pacific--navigating, as the
Polynesians did, only by the sun, stars, winds and currents. The
Hokule`a's 16 voyages have to do with education as much as voyaging,
says Myron "Pinky" Thompson '50, president since 1979 of the Polynesian
Voyaging Society in Honolulu, a private organization that sponsors the trips.
Thompson, whose son Nainoa has been navigator of the Hokule`a for 15
years--and is the first Hawaiian in more than 500 years to practice the ancient
art of celestial navigation--says the voyages have served a rapidly reviving
Hawaiian culture and generated a strong sense of pride in people thoughout the
Pacific.
"One of the things I see is the universality of success. Certain processes are
involved in being successful that are common to all cultures. They do their
homework, then go after it," Thompson said, comparing the original voyages to
the Hawaiian Islands to today's space travel.
Voyaging is a metaphor for developing leadership as well as for learning, says
Thompson, and in 1992 he led PVS in moving voyaging into the classroom.
Students tracked Hokule`a on nautical charts while studying the
Polynesian voyagers' achievements and the geography, oceanography and
meteorology of the Pacific. The long-range goal of PVS, Thompson says, is to
train students to be leaders who will think critically about personal identity,
human survival and environmental issues affecting the land, sea and people of
Hawaii.
"My life has been dominated by one or another of these ideas," said Thompson,
who last December retired as a trustee of the Bishop Estate, the
multi-billion-dollar trust established in 1884 to provide funds for the
education of Hawaiian and part-Hawaiian children. During his 20-year tenure,
Thompson, who is three-fourths Hawaiian, was instrumental in making early
childhood development the focus of the trust's $160-million-a-year income.
"I look at education as a developmental process," said Thompson, a sociology
major at Colby with an M.A. in social work from the University of Hawaii. He
also serves as chair of the board of Papa Ola Lokahi, a private nonprofit
organization founded to improve the overall health of native Hawaiians, and he
is heavily involved in Healthy Start, an early-intervention program for
families at high risk of child abuse. The program promotes positive parenting
skills and optimal child development from the time a mother enters a hospital
to give birth.
"I'm finding it very satisfying to do these things," Thompson said. Helping
his daughter and two sons build homes within a half mile of each other also is
"fun work. And being around younger people keeps the mind going."
The Polynesian Voyaging Society was co-founded by a Caucasian anthropologist from California who designed a replica of an ancient canoe in the mid-1960s. Thompson says PVS's strength comes from its multiethnic makeup.
"What I look for is the quality of the guy, not ethnicity--for the ability to learn and to work with other people. I look at what he can contribute." Thompson said. He added, "It's great to be part of the human race."
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