Every December, I review the previous 11 months and write a two-part series of things I learned during the year. Writing this column is a process of discovery for me that I thoroughly enjoy. Here are some highlights.

‘Aloha ‘Oe’ at the Olympics

I was surprised to read this year that the closing ceremonies of the 1932 Olympic games in Los Angeles featured the song “Aloha ‘Oe,” written by Queen Lili­‘u­okalani.

Richard Stanton described it in the LA Times: “After the speeches were finished, the pageantry complete, the trumpets high up in the LA Coliseum sounded again as the sun was setting. The plaintive strains of ‘Aloha ‘Oe’ began to play.

“The audience, deeply touched, joined in a chorus of a hundred thousand voices, singing the Hawaiian farewell — ‘Aloha ‘Oe, Aloha ‘Oe, one fond embrace, a ho‘i a‘e au, a hui hou, kakou.”

(“Farewell to thee, farewell to thee, one fond embrace ere I depart, until we meet again.”)

Overnight success

I was also surprised to learn this year that the time period between Duke Kaha­namoku’s first competitive swimming race and his gold medal swim in Stockholm was just 11 months.

On Aug. 12, 1911, he was a few days from his 21st birthday. He had not ventured outside of Hawaii. He had never entered a swimming competition, and few knew who he was. He broke the world record in the 100-yard swim by five seconds.

Less than 12 months later, he had won Olympic gold medals and met the king and queen of Sweden. The whole world knew who he was and loved him.

Dick Tracy’s Hawaii caper

The most popular comic strip in the world in 1960 was Dick Tracy. An estimated 50 million read it each day. I was surprised to learn that for most of that year, Dick Tracy involved Hawaii in its storyline.

Dick Tracy creator Chester Gould vacationed in Hawaii in 1959. He met with Honolulu Police Chief Daniel Liu to find out whether there was a suitable assignment for Tracy. Gould had decided that Hawaii would make a good setting for a Dick Tracy whodunit.

“I may do a special series for the Chicago Tribune (Gould’s home paper), or maybe I can have Tracy assigned on a case where he’ll come to Hawaii to pick up the criminal,” Gould said.

The series with Hawaii began in February 1960. Tracy was at a “Gifts From Hawaii” store in Chicago. A small, wooden carved tiki had been found. Tracy called Chief Dan Liu, who consulted John Papa I‘i’s “Fragments of Hawaiian History” book.

I‘i was a friend and adviser to Kamehameha II and Kamehameha III. Golfer Francis I‘i Brown was his grandson.

Taylor Swift and Hawaii

Taylor Swift’s father, Scott, played football for the University of Hawaii in 1970. The freshman linebacker and center was 6-feet, 1-inch tall and 190 pounds.

Scott Swift’s collegiate football career was brief. The lanky teenager from Pennsylvania transferred to a school closer to home after one season and attended the University of Delaware before becoming a successful wealth manager.

Honolulu resident Carlson Mun said that in 1977 he was living in Reading, Pa., in the southeastern part of Pennsylvania.

“Scott Swift and I were roommates for two years when we both worked at a radio station,” Mun said.

“We went on a weekend adventure to the Jersey shore. On another occasion we went to visit his parents’ home in Williamsport, Pa., where they have the Little League Baseball World Series.

“My parents came to visit, and Scott took us all on a tour of Philadelphia and Valley Forge.

“Scott was a really nice guy, and I guess he was a good radio salesman. Near the end of our rooming together, he had enough money to move from the apartment and buy a house.

“He was always checking to see how his stocks were doing. After he left radio sales, he became a stockbroker. I recall he had his own investment group within Merrill Lynch.”

Scott Swift married Andrea Finlay and had a daughter, Taylor, in 1989 and a son, Austin, in 1992. Taylor was named for musician James Taylor. The last time Mun had any contact with Scott Swift was 10 years ago.

Barack Obama Sr.

This year I decided to explore Barack Obama Sr.’s three years in Hawaii, and I was surprised to learn several things about him: He was the first student from Africa to attend the University of Hawaii at Manoa. He graduated with a 3.9 GPA at UH and went on to Harvard.

Obama chose UH after reading in an American magazine about our racial tolerance and attitudes, he told the Honolulu Star- Bulletin and Honolulu Advertiser.

The 25-year-old said that the near lack of racial prejudice in Hawaii was noteworthy. “No one here seems to be conscious of color,” Obama said. “Various races get along better here than on the mainland and in parts of Africa.”

Former Gov. Neil Abercrombie was friends with Obama and remembers the son’s birth at Kapiolani Medical Center. “They had the same name,” Abercrombie said.

“The son was called ‘Barry’ growing up here, but in adulthood their first names came to be pronounced differently.” The father emphasized the first syllable (‘BARE-rick’). The son emphasized the second (‘Ba-RACK’).”

James Seishiro Burns

The youngest son of Gov. John A. Burns had an interesting middle name, Sei­shiro. I was curious to know why.

James Seishiro Burns’ mother, Beatrice Burns, came down with polio in the 1930s. Her paralysis was so severe that it was almost impossible for her to breathe.

After the painful paralysis set in, Mrs. Burns met Japanese healer Seishiro Okazaki.

“If it weren’t for professor Okazaki — Henry was his haole name — I wouldn’t be here and neither would Jim. He gave me treatments every day,” she said.

“He used his elbows a lot. He put me in hot water with seaweed. He bent my legs and it hurt like the blazes while he was doing it, but when he stopped it didn’t hurt.”

She credits Okazaki with her limited recovery and James’ birth.

‘That’s how you do it’

Former President Jimmy Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, lived in Hawaii in the late 1940s.

Their son, Chip Carter, remembered her dancing the hula several years ago. “One day my mother was sitting with my wife, Becky, and reminiscing on what it was like to live in Hawaii, and she was talking about learning the hula while living in Hawaii,” he said.

“She got up from the sofa, pushed her walker away, which she couldn’t take a step without, and proceeded to do the hula for two or three minutes.”

“She grabbed her walker, turned around, sat back on the sofa, turned to my wife and said, ‘That’s how you do it.’”

Next Friday, I’ll look at more highlights of the year.

Bob Sigall is the author of the five “The Companies We Keep” books. Contact him at Sigall@Yahoo.com or sign up for his free email newsletter at RearviewMirrorInsider.com.