Memoriam: CCH/BYU-Hawaii Art Professor Emeritus Wylie W. Swapp, 88, passed away early Sunday morning, January 14, 2007, surrounded by his family and a few close friends.
Swapp, who grew up in Nevada, attended BYU in Provo for two years before flying 25 combat missions over Germany as a bombardier officer in World War II. After returning to school in Provo he met Lois Ensign, a new teacher who had recently earned her master's degree and told him she was planning to work her way around the world that following summer, starting in Hawaii. Because he loved the Hawaiian music he heard on the popular Hawaii Calls radio program, he said he was also going to Hawaii and wouldn't it be nice if they met while they were there. They did, and after he finished his senior year at the Y — writing every day and proposing by mail over Christmas — the couple married in the Laie Temple in June 1948.
They enjoyed an extended honeymoon, sailing the South Pacific and teaching for a year in Samoa, before he decided to enroll at the University of Iowa to earn his master's degree. Swapp then started teaching at BYU, but the couple were among the first candidates to tell CCH President Dr. Reuben Law they wanted to teach at the new college.
The couple were also among the first faculty members to purchase a home in Laie — where Swapp lived for the next 50 years. In 1956, as an officer of the community association, Swapp found himself helping name some of the streets in Laie. For example, he recalled he was surprised to find no other community had selected the name Moana Street. He also came up with the names Naniloa Loop and Hale La'a.
Because of his interests in art and music, in those early years he worked closely with the Laie Ward Hukilau program entertainers and then the Polynesian students at CCH, first organizing small groups and then the successful Polynesian Panorama troupe which performed to sold-out audiences in Waikiki. This group evolved into student performers at the Polynesian Cultural Center, a name Swapp also came up with at the request of Edward L. Clissold.
In a BYU-Hawaii 2005 Jubilee year interview, Swapp recalled when Clissold returned from Salt Lake City he reported, "I presented that [name] to President [David O.] McKay and he picked up immediately: 'That's what we'll call it.' And so, to my surprise, I named the Polynesian Cultural Center."
Over the ensuing years Swapp devoted his creative talents to teaching art and Polynesian music at BYU-Hawaii where both he and his wife retired in 1988. The university and PCC recognized him as a "living treasure" in 1984 as part of their Na Makua Mahalo Ia series of programs. He also devoted countless hours serving in various Latter-day Saint Church callings, including bishop, stake patriarch and temple officiator.
After retiring Swapp continued to pursue his interests in art and island music. For example, he was a founding member of the Nani Laie Serenaders volunteer singing group and often hosted their practices at his home on Lanihuli Street. He was also active with the Mormon Pacific Historical Society, conducting historical tours of Laie and going on field trips to the neighbor islands and New Zealand. Later as a widower, he took a number of cruises, sometimes "working his way" as a gentleman ballroom dancer.
As news of Swapp's passing spread, people began sharing some of their memories. For example CCH alumnus Ishmael Stagner II (‘61) calls Swapp "a true renaissance man. In the early years of the college, all of the faculty members had to do a multiplicity of things because the faculty was so small. He was the advisor to student government when I was the student body president. Periodically, when the choir would go on tour, he would go as the tenor soloist. Then, when [the late] Joe Spurrier couldn't make it, he would conduct the choir. He also led the music in church and was my Sunday School teacher."
"Wylie was the one responsible for creating the format of our Polynesian shows and the formation of our men's halau. He put together the show we did in Waikiki for two years," Stagner continued. "The thing that most people need to understand is that you cannot find a Polynesian show in Hawaii today that doesn't follow the format he developed first at the International Market Place, and then later at the PCC. All of the big shows follow this format, particularly the ones that don't use an emcee. The PCC is still essentially doing the show Wylie developed in 1959. He was a real pioneer."
A. LaMoyne Garside, a colleague who retired from the BYU-Hawaii Art Department in 1998 after teaching for 32 years, said Swapp was "an accomplished water color artist. In addition, he taught art education and history, and worked in the administration. I respected the man very highly and admired his personal and professional life."
BYU-Hawaii alumnus Beau Amarasekara (‘88), who lived with the retired professor for the past 10-plus years, reported Swapp was positive to the end. "He never complained and was always complimentary. He kept telling me when he got better he wanted to watch all the videos he had bought. He told me once people need to laugh more; there was no reason to pout. He loved life. He loved his daughters so much and told me he thought Heavenly Father would be pleased with what we had accomplished in Hawaii."
Swapp is survived by his four daughters, 12 grandchildren and five great-grandchildren. His wife, Lois Ensign Swapp — also one of the original CCH faculty members — passed away in 1996.
Swapp's funeral will be held on Tuesday, January 23, 2007, at the Laie Hawaii North Stake Center, 55-110 Lanihuli Street, starting at 11 a.m. A viewing from 9 a.m. precedes the funeral service, with interment following at Laie Cemetery.
For more information on Professor Swapp, go to http://w2.byuh.edu/jubilee/interviews.php and select Swapp, Wylie from the pull-down menu.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story reported that Swapp was the last of the original CCH faculty members to pass away. With his death, only two other members of the original 20 Church College of Hawaii faculty who started teaching here in 1955 are still alive: Dr. Richard Wootton, who also served as the second president of CCH, lives in Mesa, Arizona; and Ken Slack, the original librarian, lives in Salt Lake City, Utah. We apologize for the misstatement and any confusion this might have caused.