Interview with Robert Hirayama

Abstract

Robert Masato Hirayama, Jr., the oldest of four siblings, was born in 1939 in Lānaʻi City, Lānaʻi. His father, Robert Masato Hirayama, Sr. and mother, Sadako Hanamoto Hirayama, settled on Lānaʻi after living on Hawaiʻi Island, where Robert, Sr. was a carpenter on a sugar plantation at Pāʻauhau. Robert, Sr. worked in a similar capacity on Lānaʻi as carpenter for Hawaiian Pineapple Company. The Hirayama family lived in Lānaʻi City, Block 17, House 19. Robert Hirayama, Jr. attended Lānaʻi High and Elementary School, graduating in 1957. With an aspiration to be a high school shop teacher, he attended and graduated from The Stout Institute in Menomonie, Wisconsin. In 1961, he taught one semester at Kailua High School before beginning his forty-year career as a shop teacher at Leilehua High School on Oʻahu from 1962 to 2002. A longtime Wahiawā,Oʻahu, resident, he often returns to Lānaʻi to hunt and fish. He still owns and maintains the family home in Lānaʻi City.