Kimo McVay; Entertainment Manager in Hawaii

Kimo McVay, 73, longtime entertainment manager and entrepreneur who at one time counted Don Ho among his clients, died June 29 of complications from prostate cancer at a hospital in Honolulu.

Born in Washington, D.C., McVay’s father was a Navy officer, and his mother, Kinau Wilder, a respected name in island theater and society.

The pinnacle of McVay’s career was the Hawaii of the 1960s and ‘70s, when he ran the Duke Kahanamoku nightclub at the International Market Place in Honolulu. The featured attraction there was Ho, backed by the Allis.

McVay spent much of the last decade of his life trying to clear the name of his father, Capt. Charles Butler McVay III, who was the commanding officer when the cruiser Indianapolis was struck by a Japanese torpedo in 1945. Only 316 of the crew of 1,196 survived in shark-infested waters. Capt. McVay was found guilty of negligence for failing to steer a zigzag course to evade the submarine. He committed suicide in 1968.

Last year, congressional action cleared McVay’s father of wrongdoing in the incident.