Katharine Luomala

Katharine Luomala (September 10, 1907–February 27, 1992) was an American anthropologist known for her studies of comparative mythology in Oceania. Born in Minnesota and educated at the University of California, Berkeley, Luomala began her anthropologic studies there by working with the Navajo people in the 1930s, chronicling their rapidly changing lives. She earned her A.B. in 1931, M.A. in 1933, and Ph.D. in 1936. She then moved to the University of Hawaii in 1946, where she studied Hawaiian mythology and ethnobotany of the Gilbert Islands, remaining there until her retirement in 1973. Luomala was a Fellow of the American Anthropological Association and a member of the Anthropological Society of Hawaii, the Polynesian Society, Phi Beta Kappa, and Sigma Xi.

Luomala owned the MV Joyita at the time of the vessel's accident in 1955.