Academic center Bob Nagatani is a detail man. When his family agreed to let the University of Hawaii athletic department use funds from their Chika Y. Nagatani UH Foundation account to furnish an academic center for student athletes, one stipulation was that it be named the Nagatani Academic Center to honor their parents.
a showpiece
of perfection
Renaissance man Bob Nagatani
turns his talents to the
UH athletic departmentBy Treena Shapiro
tshapiro@starbulletin.comThe other was that someone from the family have direct input into the design of the center.
Thus Toshio "Bob" Nagatani added interior designer to a long list of accomplishments that includes jazz musician, Waikiki Beach Boy, canoe paddler, statistician, cowboy and music producer, among others.
Instead of just rubber-stamping the athletic department's selections, Nagatani has had a hand in just about everything that has gone into the academic center's design, from the texture of the walls to the placement of the electrical outlets -- even to the keyholes and clocks.
Even the exit sign and the discreetly placed bug traps are color-coordinated in Warrior green and black.
Nagatani's attention to minute details has delayed until November the formal dedication of the 2-year-old center.
Nagatani found glass showcases for the center and is in the process of filling them with hand-picked pieces from local artists, including the centerpiece sculpture, "The Point Warriors/Leaders, Past, Present and Future" by Bob Freitas.
He has collected inspirational sayings from Confucius, the Rev. Theodore Hesberg, Muhammad Ali and even Kermit the Frog to place over computer workstations. He chose portraits from Hawaiian and American history, with only one -- Gov. John Burns -- connected with the university.
"It's attention to detail. It's how it's completed. It's the style we complete things," Nagatani said of all his personal touches.
The result is a comfortable, tasteful one-stop shop within the UH athletic complex where student athletes can study, meet with counselors and tutors and discuss their admission, housing and scholarship needs.
Comfort is the key.
"The kids will spend four to five hours here writing a term paper, and they have to be comfortable," Nagatani said.
He began with finding chairs to accommodate all varieties of athletes.
"Our people are from 7 feet tall all the way down to different sizes and weights," Nagatani said.
To find the perfect desk chair, he had a sales representative bring down several selections and brought in UH coaches Bobby Nash, Vantz Singletary and others to sit in the chairs and determine which was most comfortable.
Nagatani's friends and associates say the academic center is just one example of his kindheartedness and his drive for perfection.
Hilo County Clerk Al Konishi, who has known Nagatani for about 30 years, describes him as a genius and a Renaissance man.
"He's got a really interesting, bizarre CV (curriculum vitae)," Konishi said.
Nagatani grew up in a Jewish neighborhood in Chicago and went on to attend Harvard University, earning a cum laude degree in social psychology in 1961.
He would have graduated in 1960 but spent a year playing music on a Latin American goodwill tour in 1959. Nagatani describes himself as "a fair bass player with adequate gifts" who got a few shots. He played in a trio with Joe Raposo -- who composed such classic "Sesame Street" songs as "Sing," "Rubber Ducky" and "Bein' Green" -- and "Love Story" author Eric Segal.
He has played with jazz musicians Johnny Griffin, Ira Sullivan and Gene Ammons, as well as singers Mel Torme, Della Reese and Sammy Davis Jr.
Locally, he has performed at the former adult establishment Forbidden City, the Beachwalk and the Dunes in Waikiki.
Now Nagatani gives other musicians the chance to record their first albums at his recording studio.
Dreaming as a child of becoming the first Japanese-American cowboy star, Nagatani lived out part of his dream around 1970, spending six months in Mazatlan, Mexico, teaching American visitors to ride horses.
During that time he went on a joint venture and drove north with Don Vicente Osuna, the unofficial mayor of El Quelite, to round up wild broncos and sell them back in Osuna's town.
In Hawaii he became one of the Waikiki Beach Boys, working at the Sheraton Reef Hotel as a second captain and "a terrible surfing instructor, compared to the Boys."
He had come to Hawaii to teach sociology as a graduate assistant at UH right after graduating from Harvard.
One of his Sociology 100 students was KSSK deejay Larry Price, who started Nagatani on what has become a 36-year stint as a part-time statistician for the UH football and basketball teams. He produced the first football statistics book in 1965. Since then he has assembled a stats team to create sports information directories for UH football and basketball to accommodate media demands.
Soon it will be time to move on and let someone else take over the stats team, Nagatani said, describing himself as selfish for staying on and having all the fun.
Konishi said Nagatani is a perfectionist in everything he does. When Nagatani lived in the Big Island in the mid-'80s, Konishi was the county director of research and development. Nagatani was hired to a $1-a-year post to attract film and television productions to the island.
Nagatani put together a brochure featuring himself on the cover riding a donkey at the Mauna Lani Resort. The caption: "Get your ass to the Big Island."
"There were some on the Big Island that took offense," Konishi said. But the brochure won a national award.
Nagatani also won an award for the press book he and his friends put together for the UH-Hilo women's volleyball team.
Nagatani's drive for perfection inspires awe in some, but others cannot stand working with him, Konishi said.
"Some people love working with geniuses like that. It's exciting, it's inspiring. You have to be on your toes all the time, or you're in for a verbal trashing. I find it extremely stimulating working with Bob."
Nagatani, who still contributes to Harvard as well, said he focuses on UH because Hawaii is his home and "because with a fine university of world-class standing, the most wonderful people in the world, the people of Hawaii, regardless of ethnicity, will be able to stand tall and lead the way and participate meaningfully in activities that can determine the course of the world. It's that heavy. It's that possible. It's that doable."
The UH athletics department is happy to have Nagatani on its team.
Football coach June Jones said his players use the academic center so much that other athletes have a difficult time getting in.
"He has been a savior for our academic program," he said. "He has a great big heart, and he's a great, caring man."
Athletic Director Hugh Yoshida said the Nagatani center has sent athletes a clear message: "This is a place of learning where our student athletes can focus on the academic side."
Ron Cambra, associate dean of the Colleges of Arts and Sciences, which took over the academic part of the athletic program two years ago, said the athletes' academic performance has been outstanding since the center opened.
Jennifer Matsuda, acting department chairwoman for the center, said her staff's presence in the athletic complex has made a significant difference for the student athletes.
"Time is their most precious commodity because they have so much to do," she said. Having a full-service student center close to their coaches' offices, training rooms and athletic fields gives them a chance to stop in whenever they have a spare time, even if it is just a few minutes.
As for Nagatani himself, "we appreciate him so much," Matsuda said. "We're always so happy to see him. We're sure to laugh and not take ourselves too seriously. It's been really nice to work with him."
Ka Leo O Hawaii
University of Hawaii
