Rob Burns

More About Rob

His Story

The Rest of the Story

Rob is a consummate creator, always looking for ways to provide Hawaiʻi's people with goods and services, with Aloha. He is a true "local" son of Hawaiʻi, in both blood and love for these islands and its people.

Childhood in Kailua

Rob was born in May 1953 in the sleepy town of Kailua. His mother, Bobbie Holt, a Kamehameha School grad with her twin sister Patti Holt, were both hapa-haole native Hawaiʻians. Bobbie married a Naval Officer from Annapolis, MD, who came through Hawaiʻi at the end of the Korean War. Rob was the youngest, and only boy, of three children: Val and Donna (both graduates of Kamehameha School); Rob, however, didn't pass the 4th grade entrance exam, so it was off to public school for him.

Rob was a natural at an early age at making things, especially things to sell. "I was an entrepreneur before I ever heard of the word." He is a self-proclaimed "Graduate at the top of my class at the 'Universe of Hawaiʻi'" (not University). Rob has always been someone to know, as he seems to know everybody — his friends run the gamut from garbage men to governors and anyone in between.

Although he was slow at learning to read, Rob wasn't worried because he could sell anything from marbles to li hing mui, including assorted items he made himself, finding many on the beach in Kailua — including glass balls, which he sold instead of lemonade in front of his Kainalu Dr. home. He picked up bottles on Kailua beach and returned them to Kalapawai Market, where his first surfboards were glassed in the back of the property by Randy Wong, the owners' son. He used the money from those sales to finance the items he wanted to sell in school the following week.

Rob began to surf at age 10 and needed money for a coveted surfboard. Although middle class, no money was available to the kids in the family, so he made his own — saving his 25-cent daily lunch money by eating the items other kids were about to toss into the cafeteria trash. He lived with his mother, a divorced parent, until his senior year of high school, when he moved in with his father. Says Rob, "I learned quickly with the help of my father what it costs to live."

Rob's father, Don Burns, gave the graduating kids all the money needed to survive but nothing else, then charged back their share of rent, utilities, and food, which they had to repay from the money he'd given them. "We turned off water and lights so fast it would make your head spin, as we learned quickly about living within our means and not wasting." Rob was raised mostly by his mother's Hawaiʻian friends and family, and he observed early on that Hawaiʻians were sharers in a way that shaped how he sees community to this day.

Family History

Rob's father, Don Burns, is said to be a descendant of the poet Robert Burns. After being stationed in Hawaiʻi following the war, he married Barbara ("Bobbie"), one of the Holt twins, a duo of Hawaiʻian beauties and entertainers. Don's younger brother, Allan Burns, later moved to Hawaiʻi, graduated from Punahou, and went on to become a well-known sit-com TV and movie writer in Hollywood — creating, with partner Jim Brooks, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Lou Grant, Rhoda, and more, and inventing George of the Jungle. Allan also loaned his nephew Rob the original $3,000 that started Local Motion.

Bobbie's haole side dates back to the Mayflower, and her Hawaiʻian ancestors include ties to the Hewahewa clan — Kahuna to King Kamehameha I — and the Paoa and Namahoe families. The Holts arrived in Hawaiʻi circa 1820 and held the lease for Honolulu Harbor during the whaling days. Bobbie went on to become the official greeter for movie stars visiting Hawaiʻi, raised by her uncle Earl "Liko" Vida, a friend of Babe Ruth and family to Duke Kahanamoku.

The Local Motion Story

Rob began shaping surfboards in high school as the only way to obtain one for himself, later shaping for Lightning Bolt Surfboards, ghost-shaping for "Mr. Pipeline," famed surfer Gerry Lopez. A trip to visit his Uncle Allan in Hollywood sparked the idea for a business — Rob was struck by how much clothing Californians bought, and sensed an opportunity back home.

After a dream in which he'd opened a surf shop in Kailua, Rob called Uncle Allan for a $3,000 loan and, with his sisters' creative help, developed the name and logo for "Local Motion" — a coconut tree meant to capture the Hawaiʻian lifestyle rather than any one sport. He found a 400-square-foot retail space across from the Kailua Police Station for $225 a month, and opened with five hand-shaped surfboards, a few dozen t-shirts and shorts, and repair kits.

The business grew quickly, eventually expanding to seven statewide locations and a wholesale operation with 700 accounts worldwide. After acquiring Kahala Sportswear and Hawaiʻian Style, Rob sold Local Motion in 1991 and retired at age 40 — a retirement that didn't last long before he found his way into real estate, first buying and selling for himself, then as a full-time Realtor.

Achievements Summary