Myron B. “Pinky” Thompson provided visionary leadership as President of the Polynesian Voyaging Society for almost two decades before his passing in 2001 at 77 years of age. He was also a force for the betterment of Native Hawaiians and all of Hawai’i’s people.
“What is constantly on my mind,” Pinky told a reporter in 1984, “whether I’m on a plane headed for Washington D.C. or at a canoe practice is ‘How can I do more to influence the process that will affect the future of our Hawaiian people?'”