Name: Paul Dahlquist
Age: 55
Education: Punahou; Yale; Ohio State.
Occupation: Director, Lyman House Museum
Hobbies: Golf; macadamia and citrus farm

"I wanted to come home every year I was away," he said. "I've always, always loved the Big Island."

In 1987 Dahlquist gave up a full professorship at Ohio Wesleyan University, moved to the Big Island with no job lined up, and bought a macadamia farm and a red Jeep Cherokee.

Within a month, Lyman House director Leon Bruno hired him.

Dahlquist took over as head of the museum this month when Bruno retired.

When people think of the Lyman House Museum, "small" is the word that usually comes to mind, Dahlquist said.

It's actually the third largest museum in the state after Bishop Museum and the Honolulu Academy of Arts.

And it's getting bigger. Construction is underway increasing gallery space 17 per cent.

Its name suggests the Lyman missionary family, but the museum ranges in exhibits from astronomy to Pacific cultures.

Cultures are Dahlquist's speciality. He did graduate studies on Pohnpei in 1970-71. He had to take a three-hour boat ride to get to the village he'd be staying at, and the only person who knew he was coming was the local Catholic priest.

His arrival was overshadowed by the presence of another foreigner in the village, a Czech who was drawing attention as the only Communist in town.

Dahlquist has also lived in Japan, studying Japanese women who had lived in the United States.

He expected to find they were dissatisfied with life after returning to Japan.

Instead he discovered the women found limitations in both cultures and learned to live with them.

But he was also happy to receive a letter from one of the women, married with two children, announcing an unusual change in her life.

"I now have a job," she told him.