Hospitality leader was known as ‘Mr. Waikiki’

Andre S. Tatibouet, the Hawaii hotelier known as “Mr. A third-generation Hawaii resident, Tatibouet learned hospitality from the ground up, sweeping floors and doing laundry at his mother Annalie Knaack Tatibouet’s Royal Grove Hotel in Waikiki. While attending the University of Hawaii, Tatibouet built his first Waikiki hotel, the Cleghorn Apartment Hotel. He later developed the Pacific Beach Hotel, now the Alohilani Resort Waikiki Beach, and in 1969 founded Hotel Corp. of the Pacific, which became Aston Hotels &Resorts. “He really gave me power as a woman,” said Kathy Gunderson, general manager of the Waikiki Circle Hotel and area manager for Waikiki Castle Hotels &Resorts.