[One of our most-senior, former senior missionaries paid a periodic visit to the Polynesian Cultural Center in March 2023 and took the time to share the following interview for the PCC’s 60th anniversary historical website]:
Elder Paul M. Wilson, who is a healthy 96 years old, and his wife, the late Sister Lois Wilson, served twice consecutively at the Center between 1991 and 1995.
During those years, Elder Wilson worked closely with the Center’s sales and marketing team as the director of marketing, and also with the Center’s advertising agency, Ogilvy & Mather (in Honolulu). Sister Wilson (who passed away in 2019) worked in the business office. (after finishing their missions, they moved back to St. George, Utah, where he still lives.)
In addition to revisiting the villages and watching the HĀ night show, Elder Wilson also spent time with his son, Christian Wilson — who has lived in Laie for 42 years, granddaughter Kiana Wilson Uluave, and his three great-granddaughters here.
Christian formerly worked for 19 years in the Center‘s MIS department and an additional 15 years as a marketing consultant, while Kiana and her husband, Kalin Uluave — both PCC alumni — run the So‘da Bomb and mobility scooter concessions in the Hukilau Marketplace.
Chris and his late Tahitian alumna wife, Patricia Hutihuti Wilson — who suddenly passed away in September 2023, also operate the Tahitian Treasures kiosk in the Hukilau Marketplace. She was visiting their older daughter, PCC alumna Luçie Wilson Taie and her three boys (Kiana has three girls) in Papeete, where Luçie operates two dance schools, during Elder Wilson’s most recent visit. Luçie, a 2010 Miss Tahiti, was a member of the PCC promo team. She also performed in the role as one of the original Lani cast members in our HĀ night show when it premiered in 2009.
Paul Wilson, who was born in Utah but grew up in Montana before moving to California, was drafted into the Army Air Corps and served in a photographic squadron in Texas and the Japan Occupation following WWII. His military assignment included a lot of photo processing, where he became familiar with Eastman Kodak products and later went to work for that company after returning to Los Angeles.
While living in the Hollywood Ward, he was called as a Spanish-speaking missionary to Argentina for three years. (This was during the Korean conflict when the number of Church missionaries from the U.S. was restricted, but Elder Wilson was available because he was already an AAC vet.)
Returning from South America, he soon got his old job at Kodak back, and started a 36-year career there which took him to management assignments in Mexico and Brazil (where he learned Portuguese). Soon after retiring in 1991, he and Lois put in their senior missionary application.
“We actually thought, because I spoke both Spanish and Portuguese, that we’d go to Latin America somewhere. But when Chris told us there was an advertisement for marketing director at PCC, I said that might be okay, too, and we ended up in Laie.”
“Lois particularly loved it here. Being close to our grandkids, she felt really at home. She also had very good friends at the PCC in the office,” Elder Wilson said.
He said much of his own senior missionary work helped focus the Center’s advertising “on the tourists, not only on their way here on airplanes, but also after they arrived. For example, we had a brochure we’d hand out to people in Waikiki. That sort of thing really helped a lot because the PCC was packed almost every single working day.”
People meeting Elder Wilson now might not realize he’s drawing close to 100 years old, because for years he’s been seriously committed to exercise and diet. For example, he often hiked in Zion’s National Park (near his home in St. George), and he still walks two miles every day.
In fact, he’ll tell you a health concern led to his latest entrepreneurial venture: “I came here to visit one time in the 1980s, and as soon as Chris saw my face, he said, what’s wrong? I had a red, swollen face. I had rosacea, and doctors had told me it’s incurable.”
“Chris gave me a bottle of [Tahitian] tamanu oil, and said, ‘Put this on.’ Four days later, I no longer had rosacea. I was shocked. This is miraculous stuff, and I decided I’m going to try to sell tamanu oil in one-ounce bottles.”
Elder Wilson now processes seven tamanu-based products from his home-based lab, and sells through Chris’ kiosk.
Of his 2023 visit, the first since COVID, Elder Wilson said, “It’s a pleasure for me to see so many people now coming to the PCC and enjoying it a lot. Our work here was difficult, but we loved it and benefitted from it. We’re hoping our great-grandchildren get the opportunity to work at PCC someday, too.”
