Legends, ancestral ghosts, and tales of creation are palpable and exquisite ties to the past in the Hawaiian Islands. There is another seldom told modern tale which forever links the International Primate Protection League (IPPL), Lucky Lindy, the Seven Sacred Pools at ‘Ohe’o Gulch in Haleakala National Park, Pan American Airlines, and if one uses a bit of imagination, the great “Kate”, Katharine Hepburn

Sam Pryor and IPPL: The Hawaiian Gibbon Connection

Article and photos by Georgianne Nienaber

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On the west shore of Maui a picturesque church, constructed of lava rock and stucco, faces west over the great Hawaiian waters of the Pacific. The Palapala Ho’omau Church was constructed in 1854 by Congregational missionaries from Connecticut. The grounds are lush and look much as they did 150 years ago—shaded by banyan, pine, wild plums, and coconut trees. Beneath the fertile vegetation an open secret lies buried between the graves of aviator Charles Lindbergh and his friend Sam Pryor. That the church and grounds remain in such pristine condition is a testament to the dedication of Sam Pryor to its restoration. The fact that “Lucky Lindy” chose the location as his final resting place is a tribute to the unique bond and life-long friendship Charles Lindbergh established with Pryor, the one- time CEO of Pan American Airlines.

Visitors to the church can’t help but notice that carefully reconstructed detail, supervised by Pryor, which includes the original church pews. Lore has it that when Pryor began the restoration, he noticed a church pew under a neighbor’s coconut palm. Pryor sent out word that he was restoring the church and would like to know if any more church pews were still in the area. Within days, all of the original pews were returned, as if by magic, and remain in surprisingly good condition—burnished with wax and polish. Soft light filters into the sacristy through a magnificent window, backlit with a likeness of Christ. He gazes lingers protectively over the graves of the Pryors, Lindbergh and Pryor’s pet gibbons—the only non-human primates buried in hallowed ground.

Charles Lindberg was introduced to gibbons, a branch of the non-human family tree of primates, during a visit to the Pryor family estate in Kipahulu. It was a typically rainy, tropical morning, and Lindbergh was shaving and covered with lather when he heard a commotion at the door of the guest cottage. The then-resident gibbon, “Hula,” jumped into his arms when he opened the door to investigate and remained wrapped in his arms until late morning, when Pryor noticed “Lucky Lindy” walking up the hill with Hula clinging to his neck. According to Pryor’s account of the incident in his autobiography, All God’s Creatures, the windy night had disturbed the little gibbon, and she turned to Lindbergh for comfort from the storm. Lindbergh was so taken with the remote beauty of the setting and the antics of Hula that he brought his wife, Ann Morrow, to visit on his next trip and told Pryor that he wanted his help in finding a small cottage with an ocean view to maintain as a family retreat.

No real estate deal was necessary, because Pryor recognized that an expensive collection of nineteenth century dolls Lindbergh donated for the Pryor Doll Library were worth more than five acres of Pryor family beachfront. Lindbergh built a cottage there, which was similar in design to the guesthouse where he first encountered the little gibbon, Hula. As the two friends grew more comfortable in their friendship, discussion of the inevitable end of life slowly worked its way into conversations. Pryor recalls that he was somewhat “startled,” when Lindbergh sprung the unavoidable question on him and asked where Pryor intended to be buried. A twenty minute walk down a dirt road to the Palapala Ho’omau church, which Pryor was in the act of restoring, convinced Lindbergh that he would not only like to join Pryor in their restoration effort, but would like also to be buried there—in a spot he chose on a cliff, with the Pacific roaring hundreds of feet below. In his memoirs, Pryor writes that as Lindbergh was looking at the site, the ground began to growl with a small earthquake. Lindbergh was buried in a simple plot, which, like the church, faces west over the azure waters. At his request he was buried in his work clothes and boots in a simple ceremony above the dramatic cliffs.

Six diminutive, weathered cement markers lie between the graves of Pryor and Lindbergh in the historic church cemetery located on the edge of Kipahulu town. Access from the Hana highway is easily missed—marked only by a battered sign which points the way down a narrow driveway. More easily missed is an understanding of the deep friendship which led to Lindbergh’s burial near the Pryor family plot, including the love and rapport the two aviators had for a branch of the primate family tree Sam Pryor called the “gibbon ape.”

Pryor’s first gibbon was “Kippy,” whom he acquired from the director of the Animal Research Institute of Japan. He found the gibbon in a pet store in Tokyo when the two- month-old creature reached for him with two tiny arms from its temporary sanctuary in a wicker basket. Immediately entranced, Pryor inquired about the price of the animal, but was told it was already promised to the aforementioned director. Somehow, Pryor was able to convince the director that the infant ape was destined to become a member of the Pryor family and menagerie of pets. For the rest of his life, Kippy traveled with the Prior family from Maui to Greenwich, Connecticut and even managed a small “role” in a Tarzan movie, before he was buried in the cemetery of the old Hawaiian mission church outside of Kipahulu. Along the way, Kippy literally “hung out” with movie stars and politicians, including Edie Albert and Vincent Price.

The latest biography of Katherine Hepburn (Kate, by William J. Mann) notes that the fascinatingly narcissistic actress was fond of wandering the streets of Los Angeles with a gibbon draped around her neck! The Hepburn hide-away, “Fenwick” was near Pryor’s home in Greenwich, so it is plausible that the great Kate’s wardrobe accessory was one of his gibbons. Indeed, taking a comparative look at the publicity still of the great Kate with a gibbon, one cannot help but notice that the unnamed gibbon looks very much like the picture of Pryor and his favorite gibbon, “Keiki,” which is featured in Pryor’s autobiography. Hepburn’s official biography lists a pet gibbon, “Amos,” that she took on her RKO tours. It seems gibbons, rightly or wrongly, Pryor’s or not, were an accessory of the Hollywood wardrobe and PR machine!

Unfortunately, on a trip to the Seven Sacred Pools on Maui, Kippy devoured a tropical flower of unknown etiology and died shortly thereafter. The pools are located in Haleakala National Park at ‘Ohe’o Gulch, where a series of twenty-four pools cascade down to the sea. The Pryor family estate was nearby, and like many families before and after them, the Pryors would enjoy an afternoon swimming in the lowest of the pools, which are said to have healing properties.

The weathered marker in the Palapala Hoomau graveyard is almost illegible, but if one looks closely, you can read ‘Our Devoted Friend, Kippy.” The gibbon graves were not an afterthought, but a calculated effort on the part of Pryor that the gibbons be “a part of posterity and there for my grandchildren to see.” Tour operators have offered many inaccurate explanations for the tiny graves. Some call them “monkey graves,” or the “family pets,” and tourists traveling alone have been heard to mutter that they are “inappropriate graves for children.”

Pryor would not acknowledge a difference between people and animals. Once, while on a trip to Alaska, Pryor was stopped by a perplexed security guard as he tried to bring his pet gibbon, “Keiki Auli’i,” (cute or perfect child) into a shopping center. The story goes that Pryor very simply explained to the officer that “I’m a human ape, you’re a human ape and he’s a gibbon ape.” For Pryor, animals and people were all God’s creatures, but animals got along better than humans….”

As all good stories go, this one does not end at the graves of “Kippy,” “George,” “Keiki,” “Ganza,” “Hula,” and “Blackie.”

One day in the early 1980s, Shirley McGreal of the International Primate Protection League (IPPL), received a call from a man identifying himself as Sam Pryor. Pryor asked if IPPL would provide a home for his remaining gibbons when he died. McGreal, who at that time was a friend of the world-renowned primatologist, Dian Fossey, of Gorillas in the Mist fame, gave an enthusiastic “yes.” The only caveat was that Pryor please put the request in writing; McGreal explained that IPPL did not have extra funds for the gibbons’ care.

McGreal heard nothing further about Pryor or his gibbons for many years. Then one day in 1994, Lucy Wormser of the Pacific Primate Sanctuary on the island of Maui called IPPL to report about a gibbon kept alone at Maui Zoo in substandard conditions. The gibbon's name was Sammy. IPPL learned that Sammy had been kept as a pet by Sam Pryor. He had regularly been taken to the Hana Hotel's lunch buffet where he had a special fruit plate. However, Pryor had unfortunately never put in writing that his gibbons were to come to IPPL when he died—and as a result Sammy ended up living in isolation at the Maui Zoo.

Wormser and her colleagues campaigned for Sammy to come to IPPL, and the gibbon arrived in South Carolina in May 1995. McGreal maintains that she “never knew a gentler, sweeter gibbon than Sammy, but he clearly was not a healthy animal.” From the start, Sammy had a bad cough. Tests showed that he had dilated cardiomyopathy, a serious condition not heard of before in gibbons, but which can be caused by exposure to the Coxsackie virus. Named after Coxsackie, New York, where they were discovered, the coxsackie viruses are part of the enterovirus family of viruses (which also include echoviruses, polio, and hepatitis A viruses) that live in the human digestive tract. Sammy was very cooperative and allowed the IPPL staff to medicate him, but his heart muscle was damaged beyond repair and there was no cure. Poor Sammy passed in October 1997.

Later, Maui Zoo had a regulatory conflict with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and a decision was made to close the zoo down. The zoo's remaining gibbons were sent to IPPL; they were Boy, Jade, and their young son, Maui. IPPL immediately changed the name "Boy" to "Palu-Palu," which means "softly-softly" in the Hawaiian language.

McGreal was always curious about the background of the Maui gibbons and found an answer in Pryor's autobiography. Memorable tales include memorable twists. "Boy" had also been a pet in Sam Pryor's home. He and his mate Kamie had produced a black baby gibbon that was taken away for hand-raising. "Boy" was IPPL’s Sammy’s father!

In his new "incarnation" as Palu-Palu, Sammy's father has lived at IPPL since 2000. His mate Jade still lives here with him. Maui is the father of the IPPL youngster, Courtney, making Palu-Palu and Jade grandparents.

Pryor was steadfast in believing that all of God’s creatures have an intimate connection. How else is one to explain the strange story that links Lucky Lindy, the CEO of Pan American Airlines, Dian Fossey, Hollywood, the sacred grounds of Hawaii, and a primate preserve located in the low country of South Carolina? Truth is indeed stranger than fiction, and all life on earth is connected in ways we cannot imagine. Or as the Hawaiian Creation Chant, the Kumulipo, instructs:

 “Born were the plants...born were the fishes of the sea and the animals that swam the air. Born were the creeping things, the birds and the crawlers... Still it was night. For such was the time of Po, where it was still dark. Tranquil was the time as night pressed....”

Hawaiian historian, Herb Kawainui Kane comments on the Kumulipo in the PBS series, The Hawaiians, "The entire universe was an orderly, fixed whole in which all the parts were integral to the whole, including man, himself. Man was descended from the Gods but so were the rocks, so were the animals, so were the fish. Thus man had to regard the rocks, the fish and the birds as his relatives. It's an ecological point of view which western man is only beginning to discover now."

Pryor and Lucky Lindy would agree.

Author’s notes: Pryor’s autobiography uses the spelling, Keiki Alii, which would be the phonetic representation of the Hawaiian “Keiki Auli’i.”

Georgianne Nienaber is an investigative writer and the author of Gorilla Dreams: The Legacy of Dian Fossey, an account of the life and death of the famed gorilla researcher, Dian Fossey. For more information visit www.thelegacyofdianfossey.com.