It was a personal and professional privilege to have met John Keolamaka’ainana Lake, a gentleman in the fullest sense of that word, during his fruitful life as a steward of Hawaiian culture.

Oddly enough, my husband knew him, too — but as a Spanish teacher at St. Louis High School. That was back in the ’60’s, before the Hawaiian cultural renaissance, when a renewed appreciation for the native arts was just beginning. Keola Lake helped to drive what Hawaiian cultural activities there were on the Crusader campus (and the late George Helm was one of his featured students), but there weren’t too many full-time Hawaiian teachers around, and teaching Spanish became his gig.

Perhaps it’s not so odd, considering what a man of the world this kumu really was. What was so admirable about him was his embrace of all religions and cultures. Spiritually he was both Catholic and a practitioner of the Hawaiian religion and he saw absolutely no  conflict there. While covering one of his ‘uniki (graduation) ceremonies for his students of  the hula, chant and kahuna arts, I noted that the ancient Hawaiian rites took place at the Catholic Marianist retreat in ‘Ewa Beach. How cool was that?

There was also his delightful personality. Another admirer once told me that Lake personified the definition of the word ‘olu’olu: pleasant, nice, amiable, satisfied, contented, happy, affable, agreeable, congenial, cordial, gracious. He was all those things.

But today I looked up the literal meaning of his middle name — the life of the people who attend the land — and am struck by how well that suited him.

– Vicki Viotti 

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