Charles Nainoa Thompson (born March 11, 1953, in

Oahu Oahu () (Hawaiian language, Hawaiian: ''Oʻahu'' ()), also known as "The Gathering place#Island of Oʻahu as The Gathering Place, Gathering Place", is the third-largest of the Hawaiian Islands. It is home to roughly one million people—over t ...

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...

) is a

Native Hawaiian Native Hawaiians (also known as Indigenous Hawaiians, Kānaka Maoli, Aboriginal Hawaiians, First Hawaiians, or simply Hawaiians) ( haw, kānaka, , , and ), are the indigenous ethnic group of Polynesian people of the Hawaiian Islands. Hawaii ...

navigator A navigator is the person on board a ship or aircraft responsible for its navigation.Grierson, MikeAviation History—Demise of the Flight Navigator FrancoFlyers.org website, October 14, 2008. Retrieved August 31, 2014. The navigator's primar ...

and the president of the

Polynesian Voyaging Society The Polynesian Voyaging Society (PVS) is a non-profit research and educational corporation based in Honolulu, Hawaii. PVS was established to research and perpetuate traditional Polynesian voyaging methods. Using replicas of traditional double-hul ...

. He is best known as the first Hawaiian to practice the ancient Polynesian art of navigation since the 14th century, having navigated two double-hulled canoes (the '' Hōkūlea'' and the ''Hawaiiloa'') from

to other island nations in

Polynesia Polynesia () "many" and νῆσος () "island"), to, Polinisia; mi, Porinihia; haw, Polenekia; fj, Polinisia; sm, Polenisia; rar, Porinetia; ty, Pōrīnetia; tvl, Polenisia; tkl, Polenihia (, ) is a subregion of Oceania, made up of ...

without the aid of western instruments.

Early life and career

Born in

Honolulu, Hawaii Honolulu (; ) is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, which is in the Pacific Ocean. It is an unincorporated county seat of the consolidated City and County of Honolulu, situated along the southeast coast of the island o ...

, Thompson is a descendant of Alexander Adams and James Harbottle, foreign advisors of the Kingdom of Hawai'i and a direct descendant of

Kamehameha I Kamehameha I (; Kalani Paiea Wohi o Kaleikini Kealiikui Kamehameha o Iolani i Kaiwikapu kaui Ka Liholiho Kūnuiākea; – May 8 or 14, 1819), also known as Kamehameha the Great, was the conqueror and first ruler of the Kingdom of Hawaii. T ...

. He graduated from

Punahou School Punahou School (known as Oahu College until 1934) is a private, co-educational, college preparatory school in Honolulu, Hawaii. More than 3,700 students attend the school from kindergarten through twelfth grade, 12th grade. Protestant missionar ...

in 1972 and earned a BA in Ocean Science in 1986 from the

University of Hawaii A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, th ...

. Thompson was trained by master navigator

Mau Piailug Pius "Mau" Piailug (pronounced ; 1932 – July 12, 2010) was a Micronesian navigator from the Carolinian island of Satawal, best known as a teacher of traditional, non-instrument wayfinding methods for open-ocean voyaging. Mau's Carolinian ...

from the island of

Satawal Satawal is a solitary coral atoll of one island with about 500 people on just over 1 km2 located in the Caroline Islands in the Pacific Ocean. It forms a legislative district in Yap State in the Federated States of Micronesia. Satawal is th ...

. His first solo voyage was from Hawaiii to Tahiti in 1980. Since then, Thompson has been the lead navigator on the subsequent voyages of ''Hōkūlea'', including the Voyage of Rediscovery from 1985 to 1987. On March 18, 2007, Thompson and four other Native Hawaiian navigators were inducted into

Pwo {{for, Pwo languages, Pwo languages Pwo is a sacred initiation ritual, in which students of Micronesia navigation, traditional navigation in the Caroline Islands in Micronesia become navigators (''palu'') and are initiated in the associated secrets. ...

as master navigators. The ceremony was conducted by Piailug on Satawal. In June 2014 he was made a commander of the

Order of Tahiti Nui The Order of Tahiti Nui was established on 5 June 1996 by the Assembly of French Polynesia to reward distinguished merit and achievements in the service to French Polynesia. History The Order of Tahiti Nui was established June 5, 1996 by resolu ...

for his work with the Polynesian Voyaging Society.

Currently

Thompson currently serves as the Chair of the

Board of Trustees A board of directors (commonly referred simply as the board) is an executive committee that jointly supervises the activities of an organization, which can be either a for-profit or a nonprofit organization such as a business, nonprofit organiz ...

for Kamehameha Schools (a post that his father Myron "Pinky" Thompson also held), and a member of the

Board of Regents In the United States, a board often governs institutions of higher education, including private universities, state universities, and community colleges. In each US state, such boards may govern either the state university system, individual col ...

for the

Family and personal life

Thompson is married to

KHON-TV KHON-TV (channel 2) is a television station in Honolulu, Hawaii, United States, serving the Hawaiian Islands as an affiliate of Fox and The CW. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group alongside MyNetworkTV affiliate KHII-TV (channel 9). Both stati ...

2 television anchor Kathy Muneno. They are the parents of twins.

References

External links

Biography from the UH Institute for Astronomy

Biography from Kamehameha Schools
Native Hawaiian people Punahou School alumni University of Hawaii alumni Hōkūle{{okinaa 1953 births Living people People from Oahu Polynesian navigators Commanders of the Order of Tahiti Nui

Early life and career

Currently

Family and personal life

References

Further reading

External links