Rodney Nakoa
Elected: April 13, 1996
Inducted: August 16, 1996
Born: Born on February 4, 1942 in Honolulu, Hawaii
Family: Rodney and Patricia have four children, Conrad, Lara, Muzzette and Kevin and 7 grandchildren. His first son, Conrad, has been in the business with him many years and is currently in charge of the day-to-day operations. As they say behind every great man is a great woman and this refers to his partner both in business and his private life for the past seventeen years. His wife Patricia has been both the supportive and driving force which has helped him to be where he is today.
History: After high school, Rodney joined the U.S. Navy. While in the Navy he got a class “C” school certification in air conditioning & refrigeration. After serving 4 years he left the Navy with an honorable discharge as a Second Class Machinist. Rodney went to work at Hickam Air Force Base as an air-conditioning and refrigeration mechanic. He completed his journeymanship in 2 years. Rodney got into the Honolulu Fire Department in 1967 and moonlighted in several job capacities. He was part owner in a refuse company, a private detective, worked at an air conditioning repair shop and had a repossession company with one tow truck.
In 1970, Rodney finally realized he was spreading himself thin and decided to sell out his share in the refuse company and went into the towing business. He would work ten days a month with the fire department working 24 hour shifts and had 20 days off. He decided to keep working at the air conditioning repair shop and to keep the repossession business. In 1972, he had increased his fleet of trucks to two one-ton Holmes tow trucks and successfully continued to win and work the contract for 9 years until the bidding went high franchise. Rodney decided to diversify and added two Holmes 750’s and two 20-ton equipment trailers. He stated hauling construction equipment as well and concentrated more on heavy-duty towing and recovery work. Currently, his fleet consists of two 750 Holmes, one 25-Ton Weldbuilt, one 40-Ton Century with SDU, two medium duty trucks, two 1-Ton trucks, two Landoll trailers (one 317 and one 660 with radio remote functions), one Eager Beaver 60-Ton lowboy trailer, one 6 x 6 off road recovery vehicle and one 4 x 4 off road recovery vehicle.
In 1983, Rodney joined TRAA and in 1986 was elected to the Board of Directors representing Hawaii and at the present time still remains in this position. After experiencing the unity of other State Associations through his involvement with TRAA, Rodney felt that it was time for Hawaii to become united via a state towing association. Rodney traveled to all the islands and spoke to many of the towing companies about getting together. He knew it would be a hard task to get competitors together. He felt that by uniting the various companies throughout the islands they would be able to have a chance to change or introduce laws pertaining to the towing industry. In October 1990, the TRAA National Fall Board Meeting was scheduled to be held in Hawaii. Rodney asked if it would be possible to have some member help to formulate a state association in Hawaii. On October 27, 1900 a meeting was held at the Plaza Hotel in Honolulu which was attended by towing companies from every island and by many of the very supportive members of TRAA who were very enlightening in their testimonies of their experiences with the forming and running state associations. The meeting was very successful and the Hawaii Tow Truck Association was created with Rodney being voted in as the President. Through the Hawaii Tow Truck Association, Rodney and his staff at Island Wide Towing were able to put together two informative seminars which included both classroom and hands on training. Hawaii was fortunate to receive top notch training from gentlemen such as Ross Kinman, Joe Sroga and Tom Luciano. Rodney is an adamant supporter of comprehensive training programs.
Awards: Recognition Plaque for Dedicated Service as a TRAA Board Member
October 27, 1990
Recognition Plaque for 1987-88 Membership Campaign
Presented July 1, 1991 – Anaheim, California
Citizenship Award – Presented June 5, 1993 – at the 1993 TRAA/TRPNC
International Expo, Greensboro, North Carolina
DECEASED August 3, 2007