Pacific Historic Parks

On June 1, 1979, the Arizona Memorial Museum Association was formed as a nonprofit 501(3) organization. It was started by a few of the Pearl Harbor Survivors and some of their retired U.S. military officers’ friends. Their mission was to support the USS Arizona Memorial and raise money to fund educational programs, museums, outdoor exhibits, and interpretative programs for the Navy and the National Park Service. They raised money for the first Pearl Harbor Visitor Center through grant writing, membership, and donations.

The Arizona Memorial Museum Association organization consists of a President & CEO, and its departments include administration, accounting, product development, merchandising, warehouse, sales, and development.

At the Pearl Harbor Visitor Center, Arizona Memorial Museum Association operates the USS Arizona Memorial Museum Store, the Narrated Audio Tour, and the Pearl Harbor Virtual Reality Center. Proceeds for these identities, after expenses, go back to the National Park Service and for the maintenance of the Visitor Center and the battleship USS Arizona Memorial. Their major contributions in raising money for Pearl Harbor Visitor Center include:

$65 million to build the new Pearl Harbor Visitor Center and its three parking lots.
$350,000 to build a new marble wall of the names of the fallen for the USS Arizona Memorial shrine room.
Each year, this nonprofit organization donates over 1 million dollars to the National Park Service to assist in the staffing, events, and maintenance of the Visitor Center and the USS Arizona Memorial.

In January of 2010, the board of directors of the Arizona Memorial Museum Association changed the organization’s name to Pacific Historic Parks, which better describes its expansion into being a nonprofit organization for other parks in Hawaii, Guam, and Saipan. Today the family of Parks that Pacific Historic Parks include:

Pearl Harbor National Memorial (on Oahu)
Kalaupapa National Historical Park (on the Island of Molokai)
War in the Pacific Historical Park (n Guam)
American Memorial Park (in Saipan)
Diamond Head State Monument (on Oahu)