Harry M. "Pono" von Holt
Year Inducted: 2011
Ponoholo Ranch | Hawai'i
Born in 1948 the youngest of three children of Ronald and Dorothy von Holt, Pono was raised at Kahua Ranch in Kohala, Hawai`i, continuing his family’s tradition as a fourth generation kama’āina rancher.
Pono is an owner and manager of Ponoholo Ranch, Ltd. married to Angie von Holt with 4 adult children. Remaining true to his heritage, Pono has spent his life in Hawai`i after schooling at Kohala Elementary, Punahou, the Thatcher School, the University of Vermont, and the University of Hawai`i, where he obtained a Master of Science Degree in Agriculture Economics in 1972.
After brief duty as a lieutenant in the U. S. Army Reserve, he began working at Kahua Ranch as a cowboy. Working there he progressed to the position of assistant manager in 1978 working with fellow Hall of Famer Monty Richards.
After a corporate spin-off in 1980, Ponoholo Ranch was formed with a base in Kohala, and leases and pasture contracts near Hilo and Pahala. With his half of the Kahua Ranch, Pono turned a 2500 cow operation into a peak 6,000 cow operation using intensive grazing and low stress handling techniques, while maintaining the highest level of man/cow efficiency in Hawai`i. There he has continued the AI breeding program learned from the Kahua herd and has some of the best performing cattle in the country, in both pasture and feed yard as well as in carcass merit. Now, while the ranch continues concentrating on a cow herd of 4500 head, the ranch has grown to encompass ownership of income property and a feed yard on the Mainland. Pono continues to be in the forefront of integrated marketing as a member of the Ranchers Renaissance and Country Natural Beef.
Pono has served as President of the Hawai`i Cattlemen’s Association, the State Hawai`i Cattlemen’s Council, and chairman of the cow/calf council for the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association.
Here on the Big Island, ever true to the von Holt family ranching tradition of stewardship and service to the community, Pono has served as a Board member and Vice-President of the North Hawai`i Community Hospital, and is currently a board member for the Hawai`i Preparatory Academy. Pono combines all of the best features of Hawai`i’s proud Paniolo tradition and is a truly deserving addition to our Paniolo Hall of Fame.