The Shah of Iran Visits Kauai

When Mohammad Reza Pahlavi (1919-1980), the Shah of Iran, arrived on Kauai on the evening of Tuesday, June 17, 1958, he became the first king or queen to visit Kauai since Queen Liliuokalani’s sojourns on the Garden Island during her reign as monarch of Hawaii from 1891 to 1893.

That evening, as a guest of the Coco Palms Hotel, the Shah and his entourage of ten had dinner in the hotel’s main dining room and enjoyed a stage show performed by the Coco Palms chorus.

The Shah also accepted manager Grace Buscher’s invitation to a tree-planting ceremony in his honor in the Coco Palms grove that night. He was the 81st of 127 persons or organizations Grace would so honor.

Prior to the tree-planting, pots filled with kerosene and coconut wicking, spaced apart about the hotel’s grounds, were lit by a torch-carrying Hawaiian runner dressed in a malo.

Drum beats were sounded, a conch trumpeted its single note, “Hawaii Ponoi” was solemnly sung, and a procession proceeded to the tree-planting site, where Grace Buscher read a tribute to the Shah before he planted his tree.

A special security detail comprised of Kauai police officers was assigned to protect the Shah at the request of the United States State Department.

Officers taking part in an all-night watch at Coco Palms included Chief Edwin Crowell, Deputy Chief George Crowell, Capt. Joseph Carvalho, Capt. Antone Vidinha and Sgt. Michiyuki Uchida.

On the following morning, the Shah and his party went on tour, with William J. Duarte’s U-Drive and Tour Company providing transportation, and with Mr. Duarte himself serving as the Shah’s driver.

The Shah and his party returned to Honolulu at noon aboard a chartered Trans-Pacific Airlines aircraft.

Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the last Shah of Iran, ruled Iran from 1941 until 1979, when he was overthrown by the Iranian Revolution.