Tour operator pioneer Lynn Hogan - who founded Pleasant Hawaiian Holidays with her husband Ed Hogan in the late 1950s and transformed it into a company that eventually produced $500 million in annual sales - died in Thousand Oaks, Calif., on Nov. 24. She was 92.
Lynn's travel industry story began in 1951 when she married Ed and joined Walt Disney Studios, where she worked on the animated "Peter Pan" feature, having earned a degree in graphic design at Brooklyn's Pratt Institute.
When Hawaii became a U.S. state in 1959, Lynn and Ed spent $10,000 in savings to open Point Pleasant, N.J.-based Pleasant Travel Service.
Capitalizing on Ed's connections in the Hawaii market, the company specialized in tour programs to the destination and relocated to the West Coast.
By 1985, Pleasant was responsible for approximately 10 percent of the destination's visitor arrivals.
Lynn and Ed sold the company to the Automobile Club of Southern California in 1988 and founded The Hogan Family Foundation, a non-profit that has awarded over $100 million to U.S. educational and humanitarian causes.
Lynn was named to the ASTA Hall of Fame in 1993 and the Travel Industry Association Hall of Leaders in 1999.
In 1995, she was named as one of the 25 most influential executives in the tour and travel industry by Tour and Travel News.
Lynn also received the IFAW Animal Action Award from the International Fund for Animal Welfare in 2007; the Lifetime Achievement for the Arts Award by the Alliance of the Arts in Thousand Oaks, Calif. in 2012.
She named Woman of the Year by the Greater Conejo (Calif.) Valley Chamber of Commerce in 2016.
Lynn is survived by her husband Ed; their four children Brian, Christine, Gary and Glenn; four grandchildren; three great-grandchildren; and her brother George.
Ed and Lynn would have celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary. Private services were held in Los Angeles in early December.
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