Kupuna Highlight: Rose Soon

Contributed By: Soon ‘Ohana

The oldest daughter of Nicholas Yee Soon and Hiu Yuk Len, Rose Tai Kim Soon was born on December 3, 1924. She and her four siblings, Albert, Alfred, Evelyn and Winifred, grew up in Kaupō, Maui, in the house and store her father built. In those days, the population of Kaupō was around 300, having diminished from 3,220 in the late 1800’s. She has often remarked on how carefree her childhood was—a rural existence, where her mother raised sweet potatoes, squash, and chickens. Everyone went fishing or hunted for goats.

The family was privileged to have electricity because Nick Soon had built a generator and windmill. The family had plenty of water on this dry side of Maui, thanks to the three water tanks he constructed. In those days, supplies came by boat from Nu‘u or Kīpahulu, or Ulupalakua, or through Haleakala crater via the Kaupō gap. The Kaupō Store was a huge part of the local social life. It was not only where people bought their essentials—animal feed, hardware, dry goods, canned sardines, and Spam—but Nick Soon was also the Postmaster, so the store was a natural gathering place for local people to talk story and visit.

Rose was educated until 6th grade in the little two room Kaupō Elementary School, just down the road from Kaupō General Store, graduating along with the only other student in her year, Jennifer Kawaiaea. Maunaolu Seminary 7-8 in Paia (Job Corps) She attended the Academy of the Sacred Heart 9-10 in Honolulu for two years, returning to Maui and entering St. Anthony’s 11 in Wailuku for one year, then graduating from Baldwin High in Kahului 12. Eventually she left Hawaii, in order to attend Colorado State College of Education in Greeley, Colorado. Rose transferred to Arizona State University at Tempe, working her way to a B.A. in Primary Education. She became one of only 2% of women of her generation who would receive a university degree. After college, she returned home and worked for a time as a kindergarten teacher on Maui and Oahu.

Rose Tai Kim Soon as a young woman.

Soon 'Ohana

She married California resident, Robert A. Irvine in Honolulu in 1952. They left Hawaii and raised their six children: Kathleen, Kenneth, Kevin, Kolleen, Karin and Kimo, in the brand new subdivision of Lakewood, California. While the children were very young, Rose was a typical 50’s housewife, sewing, cooking, gardening, and volunteering at the children’s school, St. Bernard’s, in Bellflower. Returning to work after the youngest, Kimo, entered 1st grade, she initially worked for the Federal Aviation Administration at Long Beach Airport, eventually becoming a US Customs Inspector at Los Angeles International Airport—one of few women to do so at that time. Robert passed away in 1979, but Rose went on to design and supervise the construction of a home on the land that they had purchased in Hāna many years before.

Rose retired in 1986 from US Customs, and came home to Hāna, first working at the Hotel Hāna Maui as Executive Secretary to the Manager and then as Property Manager for then-Hāna resident, Jim Nabors. Finally fully retired, Rose’s focus now is as Historian and Board Member of the Kaupō Community Association, which has worked diligently to restore and preserve that little two room schoolhouse in Kaupō where she went to school.

On December 3rd 2015, Rose celebrated her 91st birthday at Hotel Hāna Maui, followed by a big family reunion at the Hāna Bay. She is looking forward to celebrating her 98th birthday this December, and still lives in the wonderful house that she built, overlooking the ocean, and surrounded by the beautiful gardens she planted and cares for.