Soon after his arrival in 1908, University of Hawaiʻi’s first president, John W. Gilmore, noted that our teaching should be in accordance with the environments. He proposed the creation of a marine biological laboratory. A laboratory was established in 1912 in a wooden structure on the shores of Waikīkī with funds from the Charles M. Cooke Estate. This lab functioned in association with the Waikīkī Aquarium. In 1919, both facilities were turned over to the University of Hawaiʻi. In 1947, the late Edwin W. Pauley provided an opportunity to establish a marine laboratory on Coconut Island, and the marine sciences entered into a new era in Hawaiʻi. In 1993, the Pauley family again, in an act of far-reaching vision and generosity, provided funds to purchase the private portion of Coconut Island and construct a new world-class laboratory on the island.