Honolulu Star-Advertiser from Honolulu, Hawaii • B3

MONEY B3 FRIDAY 2813 BOB SIGALL REARVIEW MIRROR Islanders still remember Kul Lee and his music 4r 0) ,110, irt 4 1 0 Thing." Tony Bennett, the Brothers Cazimero, Andy Williams, Herb Alpert and Roger Williams are just some of the artists who have recorded his songs. Kanahele says Lee "exerted a profound influence on the substance and style, if not the mood, of Hawaiian music. He introduced jazz, pop and rock into his melodies and rhythms." "Best known as a composer," Kanahele continues, "Lee was also a talented dancer, choreographer, singer and all around entertainer." Cancer claimed Lee in 1966 when he was just 34. Seven years later, when I moved to Hawaii to attend the University of Hawaii, Lee's memory had not faded. We sang his songs at parties, and countless people told me I had missed one of Hawaii's greatest treasures.

Elvis Presley returned to Honolulu in 1973 and, at the request of Eddie Sherman, put on his "Aloha from Hawaii" concert, which raised $75,000 for the Kul Lee Cancer Fund. The performance was broadcast via satellite around the world to more than a billion viewers. He came on stage and he sang it. Then everybody really had tears." Kuiokalani Lee was born in Shanghai in 1932. His parents, Billy and Ethel Lee, were Hawaiian musical entertainers.

After graduating from Roosevelt High School, Lee performed on the mainland as a dancer and choreographer at the Hawaiian Room at the Lexington Hotel in New York City. Nani was a hula dancer in the show. STAR-ADVERTISER 1957 0 ne of the most beautiful love songs ever written, "I'll Remember You," was penned by Kul Lee around 1964. The song was written for his wife, Nani, who had left him to go live with her sister in New Jersey. They had a tempestuous relationship, and it wasn't the first time she had left him.

But it was the last. Don Ho recalled the night Lee walked in with a new composition. Lee said he had written the song in just four hours but estimated the song would earn him $500,000. He asked Don to arrange it. "I sat up all night with him absorbing the essence of what he was writing about," Ho recalled.

"The next day! wrote down the arrangement of the song at the club. That night! said that this was written by a friend of mine. At that time he had cancer in his throat. I sang it with the Allis. I'll never forget that night.

At that moment everybody had tears in their eyes." "Then I introduced Kul. Kui Lee met his future wife, Nani, at the Hawaiian Room at the Lexington Hotel in New York. "I'll Remember You" was written after she left him for the fourth time. I'LL REMEMBER YOU By Kui Lee LEE RETURNED to Hawaii and for a while was a performer and doorman at Honey's nightclub in Kaneohe where Don Ho got his start. Honey was Don's mother.

George Kanahele, in his encyclopedic "Hawaii Music Musicians," says Lee's "association with Ho gave him the platform with which to launch his career as a composer." Lee's songs made Don Ho famous. Some of his hits included "Lahainaluna," "One Paddle Two Paddle," "Suck 'Em Up" and "Ain't No Big I'll remember you Long after this endless summer is gone I'll be lonely, oh so lonely Living only to remember you I'll remember too Your voice as soft as the warm summer breeze Your sweet laughter mornings after Ever after I'll remember you To your arms someday I'll return to stay 'til then I will remember too Every bright star we made wishes upon Love me always, promise always You'll remember too I'll remeber you Bob Sigall, author of the "Companies We Keep" books, looks through his collection of old photos to tell stories each Friday of Hawaii people, places and companies. Email him at SigallYahoo.com. Cruise industry looks to rebound after setback in 2012 Associated Press 6 1, 42,7 Apt 10,7 IT, -1 mineir global travel market research company, said the cruise industry continued to grow in 2012, but at a much slower pace than the 10 percent growth rate of 2010 and the 7 percent growth rate of 2011. PhoCus Wright said revenues for the industry would "rise only 4 percent in 2012 as the challenge of recent years the U.S.

recession, the European financial crisis and high airfares remain unresolved and have been compounded by the worst shipwreck in recent memory" High airfares depress cruising because many cruisers fly to the port of embarkation for their ship. PhoCusWright's forecasts for cruising for 2013 and 2014 are better: 6 and 7 percent respectively. Spencer Brown said one positive thing to emerge from the Concordia disaster was improvements in safety, for example, more attention being paid to emergency drills. newsletter Cruise Week. "First-time business (from people taking their first-ever cruise) was off in particular." The lowered demand led to a decline in prices because cruise lines are loath to sail a ship without filling every room, so they'll drop prices until the ship is at capacity.

Driscoll said a gradual recovery for the cruise industry began to emerge in the fourth quarter of 2012, and now, said Driscoll, a year after the Concordia disaster, "top travel agents are reporting surprisingly strong winter season bookings for sailings that depart in later 2013 not great, but good." Heidi Allison-Shane, spokeswoman for CruiseCompete, said "cruise demand and prices were down significantly last year at Cruise Compete, with first-quarter demand down in the 15 percent to 18 percent range. This was largely a re-suit of the negative publicity surrounding the Costa Concordia sinking, but a very ing some lower prices as a result of lower sales in 2012 as the lines have more promotions." Allison-Shane said Cruise Compete, which is a cruise-booking website for consumers, generally sees 30 to 35 percent of cruises for the year booked during wave season. Carolyn Spencer Brown, editor of CruiseCritic.com, said "we're definitely seeing everything rebounding. I see advertising is going back to appeal to first-time cruisers. And we're seeing more fresh sign-ups" on Cruise Critic.

coin. She added that 2012 had been expected to be "the first bullish year for the cruise industry in the last three or four years. The cruise industry was going to go all out and reach out to virgin cruisers people who are new to cruising, who are so important to the lifeblood of cruising." A report issued in November by PhoCus Wright, the ASSOCIATED PRESS NEW YORK Cruise watchers looking back at the industry's past year say the Concordia disaster affected everything from prices to safety drills to first-time cruisers, but bookings appear to be picking up as the 2013 cruise booking season gets under way. The first three months of each year are known as "wave season," a period when many cruisers book trips as they plan ahead for summer vacations. The Costa Concordia ran aground and capsized Jan.

13, 2012, killing 32 people just as last year's wave season began. Experts have blamed the captain for the disaster, saying he took the ship off course in a stunt. The wrecked ship is still lying on its side in waters off Tuscany, Italy. "In hindsight the market took a bigger hit than anticipated," said Michael Driscoll, editor of the industry The Concordia disaster took a toll on everything from prices to safety drills to first-time cruisers. The cruise ship Costa Concordia is still leaning on its side near the shore of the Tuscan island of Giglio, Italy.

percent across all cruise lines, according to our measures." Allison-Shane also said booking activity picked up on Cruise Compete in January of this year, about 7 percent overall but even more for premium and luxury cruises, "but we are still see warm winter in most of the U.S. and a slow economy were also factors." She added that "the low booking volume early in the year led to more inventory being available throughout the year, causing prices overall to be down an average of about 5 percent to 7 Giving college credit for free online courses could reshape higher ed Associated Press Call us at: 447-2142 2m.dtixt wvvvv.pfluegerhonda.com 1-1coiritcwaL The Home of the Happy Honda Lovers 2011 PRESIDENT'S AWARD 188 S. Beretania St. Enrer en Pali HQ, or Queen Erma SI Visit our centrally located state-of-the art dealership. MAKE Hawaii's 1 Honda the Best Selection, Super Service and Absolute Best Prices, 'SPECIA1 LEASE: Special sale ends 21413.

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Beretania St 188 S. Beretania St. Ene, en Pah H. Queen Ema SI ailaki e9, Orafath' 1 But so far, few institutions have offered degree credit for them. Allowing students to get credit for the massive online courses could help make it easier to earn a college degree, said John Aubrey Douglass, a higher-education researcher at the University of California, Berkeley.

"As long as we can assess and ensure quality, it's providing one more way that students can receive an education at an affordable cost," Douglass said. The American Council on Education, which represents U.S. degree-granting institutions, is recommending credit for five entry-level classes: Algebra and Pre-Calculus from the University of California, Irvine; Introduction to Genetics and Evolution from Duke University; Bioelectricity: A Quantitative Approach from Duke University; and Calculus: Single Variable from the University of Pennsylvania. The courses themselves are free, but students seeking credit will need to pay between $100 and $190 to verify their identities, take exams monitored by web cam and receive transcripts with the council's credit recommendations. Ultimately, the institution where the student wants credit will decide whether the units will count toward a degree.

"There are many working adults today that do not have a college degree. I hope the convenience of an online class can be a first step for many of these adults to go back to school to earn their degrees," said Andrew Ng, a Stanford University researcher who co-founded Courser. Coursera, which now offers more than 200 open courses from 33 institutions, plans to seek the council's credit recommendations for more classes, Ng said. Many of the courses are automated and require little oversight from instructors. The announcement comes less than a week after Coursera suspended an online course offered by Georgia Institute of Technology because of technical troubles.

The course, which was about how to run an online course, will be offered again at later date, Ng said. SAN FRANCISCO Students may soon be able to receive college credit for the free online courses that are reshaping higher education. The American Council on Education announced Thursday that it is recommending degree credit for five courses offered by Coursera, a Mountain View, company that provides "massive open online courses" from leading universities. Many colleges and universities use the association's recommendations to determine whether to grant credit for nontraditional courses. Molly Corbett Broad, the council's president, said the decision is "an important first step in ACE's work to examine the long-term potential of MOOCs and whether this innovative new approach can engage students across the country and worldwide." Over the past year, dozens of leading universities have begun offering free, digital versions of their most popular courses, allowing tens of thousands of students to take a class at the same time..