For the Love of Gail Ainsworth & Her Cherished Books
A National Book Lover’s Day Exhibit
Makawao History Museum
August 2020
The Makawao History Museum is honored to participate in celebrating National Book Lover’s Day on August 9, 2020. In loving memory, the Museum is proud to present Gail Ainsworth and her four books.
Gail was a writer, historian, librarian and a founding member of the Makawao History Museum. She received her Bachelor of Arts at Bowling Green State University in Ohio and a Master’s degree in Library Science from the University of Hawai’i. Gail is pictured above with her family.
Gail worked 20 years as a reference librarian at Maui Community College. She also served many years as a volunteer, staff member, and board member for the Maui Historical Society. She truly loved living in Makawao and became an expert in the history of the area. Gail was a true Maui treasure with her infectious laughter, and deep love for Hawaii.
In the late 1980s, Gail wrote a booklet on the history of Makawao School entitled Makawao School: Heart of the Community, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the school. She spent many hours researching and verifying the history of the school up to that time.
Gail’s most notable accomplishment while working as a librarian was her three-year project to index the Maui News’ articles. A three-volume index spanning from 1900 through 1973 is the result of hundreds of hours she spent pouring through microfilm of the Maui News. This three-volume index is still a definitive research tool for historians of those periods and is now available online.
In the mid-1980’s Gail wrote Maui Remembers: A Local History. The book is filled with interesting stories about the island of Maui and is filled with photographs contributed from the collection of Bren Bailey.
What Maui Likes to Eat is a cook book written by Tylun Pang, a locally renowned chef, with additional content researched and written by Gail.
She obtained photos, stories, and recipes from community people as well as well known, long past Maui Restaurants and compiled these into “Community Recipes” and “Restaurants Gone By” sections of the book.
The Makawao History Museum has a limited number of copies of all publications, except for the Maui News Index, available for sale. Please contact the Museum at info@MakawaoMuseum.org or visit www.makawaomuseum.org/shop for more information.
