After growing up in Sandviken, Norway, she left the country at 18 years of age to go abroad and ended up in Honolulu as the Honorary Norwegian Consul. Her name is Nina Fasi, nee Hamre. “At age 18, I went to London to work for a Norwegian company. I wore a Norwegian national costume in fashionable Harrod’s to sell feather comforters for a company. It was enjoyable and interesting,” she says about her first job.
Then she went home to mom and dad in Norway for a while before she decided to see more of the world. Nina got a job with Vingreiser, which took her to other horizons. The last two years that she was employed by Vingreiser, she was stationed in Barcelona – a nice, warm place.
“In 1984 my brother called me from his home in Hawaii. He had opened an office for the family firm, Elsafe. My father had invented the safe that is now used in hotels all over the world. Lyng Industries manufactured them.
The first safe in Honolulu was actually installed right here in this hotel, the Ala Moana, in 1982. Until 1999 I was the manager of the firm here in Honolulu and we had 20 employees. But then Elsafe was bought by Vingcard, and their new marketing plan reduced the staff in Honolulu to four persons and I was laid off,” Nina explains.
While in Honolulu, Nina met Charles Fasi, the son of Honolulu’s mayor, Frank Fasi. They married one year later. This placed Nina in a family that has quite a central position in Honolulu’s public life. Among Norwegians in Honolulu, Frank Fasi has a good reputation for being a man of action. He was re-elected four times for a total of 23 years as mayor of Honolulu. Nina and Charles have three children.
“Aloha from Forgotten Norwegians in Hawaii”
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