KATHERINE LUOMALA
1907 - 1992

Dr. Katharine Luomala was born in Cloquet, Minnesota. She was educated at the University of California at Berkeley, receiving her Ph.D. in Anthropology in 1936. Her fieldwork was done in the Gilbert Islands and in California with the Diegueno Indians. In addition to teaching and doing research at many major universities (Indiana, Minnesota, Berkeley, Chicago, and Hawai'i) Katharine has worked at the Bishop Museum in Honolulu, the Lowie Museum at Berkeley, and in government service (National Park Service, Department of Agriculture, Department of Interior). She has received grants from Wenner-Gren, Guggenheim, NSF, Finnish-American-Ford, and the American Council of Learned Societies.

Although Katharine retired from the University of Hawai'i in 1973, she has continued to work and to write. As late as 1983 and 1984 she was honored by the Hawai'i State Foundation on Culture and the Arts, the Hawai'i Literary Arts Council, and the Hawai'i State Legislature for her contributions to our understanding of the Pacific.

Katharine has produced over 150 articles and monographs including such classics as Maui-of-a-Thousand Tricks, Voices on the Wind: Polynesian Myths and Chants, and most recently, Hula Ki'i: Hawaiian Puppetry.

Dr. Luomala is appropriately recognized for these many accomplishments; however, those of us who have been recipients of her generosity and encouragement think of her most as a great person.

Dale Robertson, Brigham Young University--Hawai'i (Spring 1989 Newsletter)