To the rest of America, he is the nation’s first African-American president. To Hawaii, he is the son of a many-cultured set of islands that are doing a better job than most in learning how to live together.

If one of Hawaii’s most brilliant exports are the sons and daughters who have learned since grade school how to slip easily among different cultures, part of Barack Obama’s legacy as president is shaped by his early life experiences in Honolulu.

In the process, President Barack Obama may have become Hawaii’s best export.

The history of Obama will partially be written as a story of racial success and as a role model for minorities on the rise in America, but Hawaii will have its own script of the Obama story.

Former Hawaii governor and Democratic Congressman Neil Abercrombie is a family friend and knew both Obama’s mother and father.

“If you are from Hawaii you automatically expect to meet people from all backgrounds and you are comfortable. It isn’t a tolerance; it is an openness. It is something that comes naturally,” said Abercrombie in an interview.

Walter Dods, banker and Hawaii civic leader who has steered several successful statewide political campaigns, sees Obama setting an example with his experience growing up in a live-and-let-live culture.

“He educated people on how Hawaii workers work with other people; his calmness and ability to work with different groups is part of his character,” said Dods in an interview.

“I would say Obama’s impact was first an emotional connection to Hawaii that he would proudly own and would attribute the those values and the like,” says Jennifer Goto Sabas, director of the Daniel K. Inouye Institute Fund.

When first elected to the U.S. Senate from Illinois, Obama was tabbed “Hawaii’s third senator” by then-Congressman Abercrombie.

During a 2004 fundraiser in Honolulu, Obama played off the link.

“The essence of Hawaii has always been that we come from far and wide, that we come from different backgrounds and different faiths and different last names, and yet we come together as a single ohana because we believe in the fundamental commonality of people,” Obama said.

“We have a sense that beneath the surface of things, all of us share a common set of hopes, a common set of dreams and a common set of values. That’s what the Islands have always been about,” Obama said before a crowd of 850 at the Hilton Hawaiian Village.

Helping that ohana will be part of the Obama-Hawaii legacy.

David Lassner, University of Hawaii president, said that Obama was the booster who helped Hawaii land two internationally significant conferences in Honolulu: the International Union for Conservation of Nature conference last year and the 2011 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation conference at the Hawaii Convention Center in Waikiki.

“UH was active on the host committees for both global events,” said Lassner.

Also, Obama’s support for the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act provided a stimulus package worth “tens of millions of dollars to deploy direct fiber optic connections to public schools, public libraries and UH sites on six islands that now provide world-class connectivity for education and research across the state,” Lassner said.

Hawaii’s U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz, in an email interview, quickly ticked off the Obama contributions to Hawaii.

“He certainly helped us in specific ways: making further investments in clean energy, in the Asia-Pacific rebalance, in recognizing Native Hawaiians and with Papahanaumokuakea National Marine Monument.“

That 583,000 square miles of ocean will become an important laboratory for UH, Lassner added, setting “the stage not just for improved conservation, but a dramatically larger research program that UH expects to participate in actively to understand what’s there and how to protect it.”

And Dods said that Hawaii benefits from the sense of security that America projects around the world. He said that while worries about personal safety have travelers around the world concerned, the U.S. and particularly Hawaii remain a safe travel spot.

“There is an Obama factor. People just feel safe about America,” said Dods.

The ultimate Obama factor, however, is probably summed up by Schatz, who steered the 2008 Obama for President campaign in Hawaii.

Of the more lasting legacy, Schatz said: “Perhaps above all else, Barack Obama, with his deep Hawaii roots, made us proud of a presidency that was bold, dignified and scandal free. He has made very real in a most remarkable way, for a new generation of Americans, the words, ‘Someday you may grow up to be president.’”

Richard Borreca, former Star-Advertiser political bureau chief, is a contributing columnist (email: 808onpolitics@gmail.com).