Hana is a special place, and some interesting people have been drawn to it. Beatle George Harrison, aviator Charles Lindbergh, entertainers Jim Nabors and Kris Kristofferson, and Sam Pryor, to name a few. Several readers shared stories about some of them.
Most of my readers, I suspect, would be unfamiliar with Sam Pryor Jr. (1898-1985). Pryor was a vice president of Pan American World Airways in the 1940s, ’50s and ’60s.
He retired to Maui and bought a ranch in Kipahulu, 12 miles past Hana. Pryor and his wife, Mary, built a home on a cliff above a waterfall. One of his best friends was fellow aviator Lindbergh, who found the remote setting appealing.
He built a home next to Pryor’s, and the two often spent time together. Pryor and Lindbergh restored the Palapala Ho‘omau Church in Kipahulu, and both are buried there today, along with several of Pryor’s pet gibbon monkeys. Lindbergh said it was “the most beautiful place I’ve ever seen.
” Hospitable Attorney Mark Davis stumbled upon Pryor’s house in Hana one day. “My wife, Janie, and I (newly married and in our 20s) hiked down a road in Kipahulu in the mid-1970s. “We happened upon a long imposing driveway on a heavy forested road.
We wandered up the driveway only to be warmly greeted by Sam Pryor, who introduced himself, showed us around his beautiful estate and invited us in. “His home was next to the Lindbergh home, then occupied by his widow, Anne Morrow Lindbergh. He was particularly proud of his pair .