Buddy officially retired as CEO in 1998 but remains chairman of the board and a daily presence at the Wailuku plant, where, as his children point out, he still has the biggest office. All five work for the company: eldest son Michael is president; siblings David, Robert and Jay serve as fleet manager, freight director, and distributions manager, respectively. And Cathy, of course, is the ice cream queen.
In the Nobriga tradition, Cathy devotes a great deal of time to community support, serving on charity boards and fundraising committees. She especially enjoys applying her ice cream mastery for worthy causes. For a benefit event commemorating the first anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, she created a red, white and blue Firefighters Special: vanilla ice cream with strawberry and blueberry swirls.
Cathy is as passionate about customer satisfaction as she is about community service. With her personal little-batch freezer in the back of the plant, she experiments with new flavors, often at a customer’s request.
Through the company website and social media accounts, Cathy regularly hears from folks out of state who beg her to start distributing Roselani on the mainland. Occasionally, a very special request comes from a fan — like the woman who contacted Cathy a few years ago, asking for several tubs of haupia ice cream. She and her husband, a paraplegic, had fallen under the Roselani spell on a visit to Maui and wanted to serve it at their wedding-anniversary celebration. It took considerable effort and money, but Cathy fulfilled the request. Days later, the grateful wife called her to report that one night after the party, she was awakened by sounds coming from the kitchen and was surprised to find her husband raiding the freezer for the leftover ice cream. “He never gets out of bed on his own, but he did for Roselani!”
Telling the story, Cathy is visibly touched by the memory. It’s clear that, for her, the Roselani family extends beyond the Nobriga clan and even the local community. But sadly for our ice cream ‘ohana outside Hawai‘i, mainland distribution is still a ways off. Like the silverswords of Haleakala or the black sands of Hana, Roselani Ice Cream remains one of the things that make Maui no ka ‘oi.
To find the Roselani outlet nearest you, visit www.roselani.com/locations.
