nanilaie.info

I’ve been a freelance mass communications specialist for the past eight-plus years, and I can honestly say I love what I do — especially working with the relatively new digital media. The majority of my work over most of these years, however, has usually centered on writing and often illustrating my articles with pictures I’ve taken.

Writing and photography (along with my other skills) have enabled my family and I to live for many years and work close to home in Laie, a place I truly love. In fact, most of my freelance work is done in my home office . . . but over the years my work has also taken me far afield. For example, I’ve done assignments throughout Hawaii, the U.S. mainland, Samoa, Fiji, New Zealand, China, Mongolia and Korea. Some of my other work has also taken me throughout the Pacific islands and various parts of Asia.

I’ve done stories on a wide variety of subjects and people of very diverse backgrounds, such as my earlier blog entries on Margaret Mead (http://nanilaie.info/?p=404) and Great Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II (http://nanilaie.info/?p=327).

Recently, since it appears that my writing days for BYU–Hawaii may have come to a close sooner than I expected, I’ve been going through my old assignments, and thought you might enjoy reading (again, for a number of you) about a few of the intriguing people I’ve met, the places I’ve visited and subjects I’ve explored through my writing for this unique university which has had such a profound affect on my life. I encourage you to click through the links below for more information on…

• Jerold D. Ottley, former director of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir: Most people know that Ottley directed the world-famous Mormon Tabernacle Choir for 25 years (1974–99) and was associated with the choral group for an additional 15 years. Fewer people may know that he and his wife, JoAnn South Ottley, taught at BYU–Hawaii for three years following their retirement from the choir after 40 years; and probably fewer still realize the move to Laie brought Ottley closer to his connections with New Zealand and the beginnings of his role as a choral director.

During his three-year stay in Laie, I had the opportunity to do several interviews with Ottley, but as sometimes happens I never wrote a feature article on him. However, I reported briefly on his remarks at the March 22, 2008, Mormon Pacific Historical Society conference in Laie where he talked of his experiences as an 18-year-old labor missionary in Temple View, New Zealand (http://newsroom.byuh.edu/node/1641).

He recounted how he was asked at the time to form a missionary choir, although prior to then he was only interested in instrumental music: “We had become known for a version of the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel’s Messiah, a cappella, because we didn’t have any accompanists,” he said of their entry in [nearby] Hamilton’s Winter Fair. In awarding the missionaries first prize, a distinguished-looking Maori judge said, ‘Watch this young man’s hands, because they’re hands of destiny.’ I had no idea at that time what he was talking about.”

• Jewish scholar Dr. Lawrence Schiffman and the Dead Sea Scrolls: In the Spring of 2006 I worked on a public relations committee for a special appearance at the Laie Hawaii Temple Visitors Center of a unique Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints had put the exhibit together several years earlier, showing it in various places around the world, and a request from BYU–Hawaii had finally landed the traveling display in Laie. In addition to the exhibit, the schedule featured a lecture series by several internationally prominent scholars, including Dr. Lawrence Schiffman of New York University.

In the final lecture, Dr. Schiffman, who has appeared many times on the National Geographic Channel and other television shows about ancient Israel, shared a different perspective on the scrolls (http://newsroom.byuh.edu/node/178):

“If you say that the scrolls are Christian, you’ve now written off one of your big sources to understand what Judaism was like before Christianity.” Instead, he said, “They are pre-Christian Jewish texts which help us understand later Judaism and Christianity.”

• The late Aunty Genoa Keawe (http://newsroom.byuh.edu/?q=node/414): Over all the long years of her career, Aunty Genoa evolved “a unique style of song,” as one fan put it, that is sometimes called “backyard music,” but which is also known in onomatopoeic Hawaiian English as chalangalang.

“Even me, I don’t know what chalangalang music is,” Keawe admitted; but that doesn’t matter to the many fans who have enjoyed listening to her sing it for over 60 years. She added that one element of the musical style is what Hawaiians call ha’i, a kind of yodeling.

“I love Laie because this is where I was raised and went to school. This is [also] where I started going to Church. This gift that I have for song is from my Heavenly Father. The Lord has blessed me with this voice.”

[TO BE CONTINUED...]

— Photos by Mike Foley