Vincent Linares’ career teaching the English language took him to Asia, Southeast Asia and the Pacific before he settled to work for the University of Hawaiʻi Maui College (UHMC). Linares, who’s known as Vinnie, built his house after buying an acre of land on the slopes of Haleakala “with a view you wouldn’t believe” in 1988.
A passionate educator and student mentor, Vinnie served as an English professor at UH Maui College for 35 years. During this time he was awarded the Frances Davis Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching.
In 2010, he retired and established a retained life estate, a gift-planning tool that allows Vinnie to provide grants for faculty and professional development while continuing to live in his home. Vinnie recently increased the gift coming to UHMC. His gift now also supports the Institute for Hawaiian Music, and the Academy for Creative Media.
Vinnie shared it was important to him to designate the bulk of his gift to UHMC for faculty development since, during his career, he was very involved in the UH Professional Assembly and was chair of the Faculty Senate as well as the Faculty Senate chair for all seven community colleges.
“I had a wonderful career at UH,” he says.
Service and the arts
Vinnie grew up in Connecticut working in his family’s restaurants, learning about cooking – and is proud to be known on Maui for his cooking, earning him the title of the “Instantpot King of Maui” – and about service from his grandparents – three of whom were immigrants from Italy and Greece.
“I was taught at an early age by my family about tolerance and also public service,” says Vinnie when reflecting on his gifts which he is making “to honor my parents and grandparents.”
Vinnie put his lessons about service to use after college by serving in the Peace Corps for three years before coming to Hawaiʻi for graduate school to study linguistics at UH Mānoa. His work took him to Micronesia, where he worked on Chuuk, formerly known as Truk, for five years.
“In the ‘70s, anything to do with English language instruction was massive and the UH program was the best,” he says. “I went to classes with anyone who’s anyone in English language.”
Vinnie was awarded three Fulbright scholarships and trained teachers in Sri Lanka, Malaysia, and Thailand. Immediately after Sri Lanka he worked a year as training director for the Peace Corps. Vinnie also spent many summers working for UH in Micronesia.
Vinnie says his family also taught him, and his five siblings, about the arts. For more than 20 years he has been portraying Father Damien in a one-man play around Hawaiʻi and as far away as New York City. “Damien” by Aldyth Morris tells the story of the 19th century priest who ministered to Hansen’s Disease patients at Kalaupapa on Molokai and was later canonized as a saint.
Vinnie turns 80 in June 2025, and he recently celebrated that milestone a little early, with a trip around the world to visit friends in an Umbrian villa in Italy, tour the ancient city of Petra in Jordan and cruise around the islands of Japan.
Questions? / More Information
If you would like to learn how you can support UH students and programs like this, please contact us at 808-956-8700 or send us a message.
