The aloha spirit

Flex, Sept, 2008 by Greg Merritt

In 1948, Mits and Dorothy

"Dot" Kawashima opened one of the first weight-training gyms in Hawaii. Eight years later, females were allowed to join the previously all-male domain, and Dot began instructing women about how to work out. The Kawashimas closed the gym in 1979 and established Mits' Basic Foods, a health-food store in Honolulu. That same year, they began copromoting the Hawaiian Islands Bodybuilding Championships, the most prestigious contest in the state, a role they maintained for 29 years until finally turning over the reigns this year. Their copromoter at every contest was Arnold Schwarzenegger, close friend to the Kawashimas for 40 years. "I knew him before he knew English," Mits, now 90, says.

I attended college in Hawaii in the late eighties and, every month or so, I stopped in Mits' store to stock up on supplements and to hear his endless stories about Arnold and others. Dot was always there and always smiling. In recent years, I encountered them at the Arnold Classic and Olympia. They were Hawaii's best ambassadors of the joy and generosity known as "the aloha spirit." In 2002, their only child, Karen, died of cancer, and, on June 14, 2008, Dot also succumbed to the disease. She was 84. Schwarzenegger and Franco Columbu were among the many who attended her funeral. Mits and Dot, who wed within five weeks of meeting in 1946, were inseparable for more than 61 years. Our condolences go out to Mits and to the many who knew Dot; and, on behalf of the bodybuilding community, mahalo for the memories.