Mr. Mauna Kea

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Summary: "Smile, smile, smile. It is your best weapon."
Review: From his earliest beginnings in the hospitality industry, helping his father to run a family restaurant, to the culmination of his career, his twenty-seven-year stint managing Hawaii's Mauna Kea Beach Hotel, once named by Esquire magazine as the third-ranked hotel in the world, Adi Kohler dedicated his career to serving his guests and maintaining the highest standards in every area of the hotel business. Author Catherine Tarleton describes Kohler's childhood in the Sudetenland, the family's post-war emigration to Germany, his growing commitment to the hotel business, and his eventual employment at the Hotel Crillon in Paris and a series of Rockresorts--Jackson Lake Lodge in Wyoming, Caneel Bay in St. John's, Dorado Beach and Cerramar Beach in Puerto Rico, and eventually Mauna Kea Beach in Hawaii.

Warm and good-humored, Kohler was always a consummate professional, a man who believed from the outset of his career that he should never say no to a guest. He maintains his professionalism in this biography, talking about the hotel industry itself, especially the Rockresorts for which he worked, rather than the celebrities, Presidents, and foreign dignitaries who were regular guests at "his" hotels. There's no dirty linen aired here. Instead, the book emphasizes how Kohler and the other professionals hired by Laurance Rockefeller were able to help "LSR" achieve his vision. At Mauna Kea, that meant turning a pristine beach and the bare, lava rock plain surrounding it, into a landscaped gem of architecture named by Fortune magazine as "one of the Ten Best Buildings of 1966," its golf course regularly named among the nation's Top Hundred Courses, and its hotel service celebrated world-wide.

Always encouraged in his career by his wife Chacha, to whom he pays loving tribute here, Kohler clearly loved all aspects of his job, the hotel, and the Big Island. Detailed anecdotes abound, showing the level of care and the respect with which his guests were always treated. In 1988, Kohler was named "Resort Executive of the Year by the American Hotel & Motel Association for his dedication to excellence, an award which will not surprise the many guests who became his friends during the quarter century of his Mauna Kea career. Mary Whipple

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Summary: "Mr. Mauna Kea" wants to hear from readers
Review: It was a pleasure to work with Adi Kohler on his lifestory and we are both grateful for the warm reception and strong support the book has received from reviewers such as Wanda Adams in the Honolulu Advertiser and John McDermott in Pacific Business News. We look forward to YOUR comments!