"Papa
Ben" Inouye
The predecessor company of Floral Resources-Hawaii
was a company called Orchid Gardens, Inc. In the 1950's Benjamin
"Papa Ben" Inouye, a building contractor by trade, acquired
a collection of cymbidium orchid plants in lieu of payment for
a greenhouse he built. Papa Ben enjoyed his new hobby of cultivating
and nurturing his orchid collection and eventually began to market
his modest crop to the mainland. By the mid 1960's his hobby became
a full time business and he traded his drafting tools and hammers
for shovels and pruning shears.
"Papa Ben" was a co-founder of Floral
Resources-Hawaii in 1976, and today at the sprite age of 85, still
comes to work at 6:30am every morning and overseas the propagation
of anthurium cultivars for Floral Resources-Hawaii.
"Papa Ben" is also an extraordinary
golfer who consistently scores his age or better. He recently
shot a round of even par, gross 72. In 2003, Papa Ben was inducted
into the Big Island Sports Hall of Fame. He is also active with
the Hilo Y's Men's Club, which helps provide financial support
to the local YMCA, and also with the Church of the Holy Cross.
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