Glen Grant (historian)

On June 19, 2003, he died from cancer. He was cremated and his ashes were scattered at Kaena Point on the far western edge of Oahu. Some have said this to be the ideal resting place for Grant, as Hawaiian mythology places Kaena Point as the bridge between the worlds of the living and the dead.

In 2000, Grant opened a cafe in the Moʻiliʻili district of Honolulu called "The Haunt". The cafe, an odd collection of B-Film memorabilia, books on folklore and mythology, and various other items from the occult to comics, was created as a home for "the creative and offbeat." The Haunt would later be expanded with the addition of an upstairs séance room, designed in the idea of 19th century-era American rooms of the kind.

In 1979 he won the University of Hawaii (UH) Board of Regents Medal for Teaching Excellence for his work in Asian-American and Hawaiian studies. In 1995 the Honolulu City Council honored him as one of Hawaii's Living Treasures of Multiculturalism.

Glen graduated from Hamilton High School in 1964. Grant received a bachelor's degree in history from the University of California, Los Angeles, and on an invitation from friend and UH professor Dennis M. Ogawa, took a trip to Hawaii in 1970. He made the move permanent the following year, earning a master's degree in education in 1974 and a doctorate in American studies in 1982, both from the University of Hawaii. He taught history, American studies and political science for more than 30 years in the UH school system and Hawaii Tokai International College, where he was a vice chancellor until the time of his death.

Though the show was mostly scripted, there were moments of spontaneity. In a 1981 broadcast, Grant dismissed as rumor the May 19, 1959 Honolulu Advertiser report of a mujina seen in Hawaii. In that article, Advertiser reporter Bob Krauss wrote about a woman's encounter with the Japanese mythical creature at the Waialae Drive-In Theatre in Kahala. A caller immediately phoned him on the air, identifying herself as the witness in the article. She then gave more details on the event, including the previously unreported detail that the mujina in question had red hair. As years passed, on the show Grant himself later reported on a number of other mujina sightings in Hawaii, from ‘Ewa Beach to Hilo.

Glen Grant (February 23, 1947 – June 19, 2003) was a Hawaiian historian, author and folklorist. He was primarily known for his Obake Files, a collection of articles and stories regarding native and imported folktales and mythology in Hawaii. Grant was also the author of the Chicken Skin series of ghost story anthologies, as well as host of the long-running radio show of the same name.

In addition to his Obake Files, Grant wrote numerous other books on Hawaii, its geography and its culture, such as his From Skies of Paradise series on Oahu and the Big Island; Waikiki Yesteryear, a book on the history of the famed Honolulu district; McDougal's Honolulu Mysteries, a collection of detective stories based in 1930s and 40s-era Oahu, all featuring hard-boiled Honolulu private eye Arthur McDougal; and Onipa'a: Five Days in the History of the Hawaiian Nation, a book on the history of the Kingdom of Hawaii.