Born in Honolulu, Oahu on October 30, 1930, Larry Kamahele was taken by his parents, while an infant, to live in Koaa'e, District of Puna on the Big Island of Hawaii. About a year and half later, the young family moved to the Ke-au-kaha Homestead in the Hilo District where he grew up as a typical Hawaiian boy and was known as Little Skipper or `O Pake Sonny.

His mother, being a lei seller, Larry was initiated to making leis as soon as he could place a needle through a flower or seed. His specialty was the kika lei, a favorite among the kupunas (older Hawaiians) of that time. He was also the first boy of the late thirties and early forties period to sell leis at the departure of the inter-island steamers, Hualalai and Wai'aleale, twice a week from Hilo.

Larry graduated from the Hawaiian Mission Academy in 1947 and went on to work his way through and finish Pacific Union College in 1952 with degrees in Biology and Chemistry. He went on to attend the University of Washington where he received a degree in Microbiology.

After serving in the army during the Korean Conflict, Larry joined the laboratory staff of the Seattle-King County Public Health Department. Here he worked as a microbiologist for over thirty years, working his way up to Assistant Director and Acting Director of the Health Laboratories. His special interest in the laboratory was in the laboratory diagnosis of Mycobacterium species and medical fungi.

Retiring from the Health Laboratory in 1988, Larry was co-founder and C.E.O. of an asbestos removal company, with offices in Seattle and Nanakuli, O'ahu. He retired from the asbestos business in 1996.

Larry has many outside interest. Foremost is Hawaiian history and culture. He had the good fortune of living on the Ke-au-kaha Homestead during the thirties and forties, when many of the old kupunas were still alive, and had the privilege of being involved in the beautiful old language, spoken at that time, and listening to the old stories, mostly in the Hawaiian language. He has always been proud of his Hawaiian heritage even during the period prior to the sixties when people were reluctant, at times, that they were Hawaiians. Though he has been living away from Hawaii for fifty years, his heart is still there. It has been helped by his extensive library of over 850 books relating to the history and culture of Hawaii and 650 records, tapes, and CDs of old Hawaiian music. Other interest include fly-fishing and at present, spectator sports.

Larry is one of the founders of the Wakinikona Hawaiian Club, Inc., established in 1962 and incorporated in 1963, and was its president for 16 years, mostly in its early formative years. He has been an advisor on Hawaiian culture to the State of Washington Burke Museum and has given lectures, on early contributions by Hawaiians to the settling of the Northwest in the early 1800s, at the University of Washington. He is a member of the Pacific American Foundation and was its editor of the Pacific American Review from 1998-1999. He is also co-founder and a member of the directorship of the Northwest American Pacific Association.