View a eulogy for Joseph Kala Kukea, USMA '65, who passed away on February 8, 1996.
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Joseph Kala Kukea
West Point, 1965
Be Thou At Peace
Posted by Jack Tidwell on August 28, 2024:
| Kala was a Hawaiian legend. He ran the outrigger races for the youth, also to other islands after he retired. He grew up near the Punch Bowl with a view of Waikiki so when the surf was up the family would all pack their boards (which he made in his basement) on top of their 1932 rag-less touring car and then hit the surf. His mother was the 1955 and 56 women's world surfing champion. At Kamehameha high Kala was a pole-vaulter. I visited him a few times, learned to like poi, got the royal tour of Oahu, and stayed in his pole house on a steep hill that he personally built using his jeep wench to do it. He took me to the dangerous Makapuu Beach body surfing and he saved me by teaching me how to get back in by clawing the bottom with a vengeance. Another thing memorable was seeing the sunrise over Diamond Head, the view of Waikiki the other way, and breakfast afterwards at Duke Kohanamoku's on Waikiki. Kala lived a full life, died way too young, I believe it was a heart attack in an outrigger race off Waikiki. |
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