Senior missionary recalls Center’s pre-1963 opening

Michael Theobald

When Elder Michael Theobald and his wife, Shauna Theobald, completed their volunteer service as senior leadership training missionaries — for full-time employees and orientation for new Center student workers — at the Polynesian Cultural Center in October 2017, it wasn’t his first experience at the Center.

In the summer of 1963 — while labor missionaries and community volunteers were still finishing the future Center, he was a 14-year-old teenager who also got the opportunity to help.

Read his memories about the Center’s earliest days at:

Volunteer Michael Theobald remembers pre-1963 PCC opening

— This story was originally written by Mikaele “Mike” Foley or the Polynesian Cultural Center’s blog; contemporary photo by Foley, historical photos courtesy of Elder Theobald.

Author

  • Mike Foley

    Mike Foley, who also goes by his Sāmoan and Hawaiian name Mikaele, first visited the Polynesian Cultural Center on his way home from serving for 2.5 years in the Samoa Mission. A few months later, he returned to Laie to enroll at the Church College of Hawaii, and also got a student-job at the Center. He has worked intermittently at the Center ever since, 60-ish years, including about 25 years full-time in marketing communications, PR and advertising. During the earliest of those years, he met and married Sally Ann McShane, a beautiful young Hawaiian dancer (who came to Laie in 1963). They raised their family in Laie and still live there.

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