[From an approximate 2003 interview by Mike Foley, reprinted in pcc50.com, March 17, 2013]
“All the time we were building it, we just called it the ‘village’ or the ‘Polynesian Village,’” said Wylie Swapp, one of the original faculty members at the Church College of Hawaii in 1955 who played a unique role in helping establish the Center on several fronts.
“President [Edward L.] Clissold came to me one time and said, ‘One of these days I’ve got to go to Salt Lake and present this to the Brethren.
I can’t say it’s the Polynesian Village. They’ve got to have something better than that. Why don’t you think of some other names.’ And I said I’ll think of something,” Swapp continued.
“But I forgot about it until he called me one afternoon [in 1963] and said, ‘I’m on my way to see President McKay. Have you
thought of a name?’ And I said, Oh no, I haven’t even thought about it.
He said, ‘Well…if you can think of something between now and seven o’clock you have me paged at the airport.’
So I started writing down all the possible words that I thought might be used in a name, put them together in various combinations, and I came up with Polynesian Cultural Center.
I called and had him paged and he said, ‘Oh, I believe they’ll accept that.’”
“When he came back, he said, ‘I presented that to President McKay and he picked up immediately: ‘That’s what we’ll call it.’
And so, to my surprise, I named the Polynesian Cultural Center. It worked out really well. It gives dignity, it can fit with a college activity, and it still has an appeal
to tourists.”
[Brother Swapp, who first came to Hawaii in the 1940s and toured extensively throughout the South Pacific on his honeymoon, also named some of the streets in Laie, and was involved in setting up the CCH Polynesian performing group that ultimately morphed into the Polynesian Cultural Center night show team.]
