James D. Dole
‘Pineapple king’
By Peter Wagner
reigned in the fields
Star-BulletinTHEY called him "the pineapple king," a tall, skinny horticulturist with a crusty sense of humor. Few have had a more dramatic impact on Hawaii's landscape than James D. Dole.
Arriving from Boston in 1899, the Harvard-educated stripling had a far-reaching idea. He bought 61 acres near Wahiawa and planted pineapples. Lots and lots of pineapples.
From that ground came Hawaiian Pineapple Co. and a new industry that transformed two islands to a sculpted sea of green.
It didn't hurt to have connections.
The pineapple king had a cousin by the name of Sanford B. Dole, president of the Republic of Hawaii and later governor of the Territory of Hawaii. Some still mistakenly credit Sanford for James' sweet legacy.
Along the way, Dole purchased the island of Lanai and turned it into a pineapple colony. But times changed.
The Great Depression took the wind out of Hawaiian Pineapple, which then was a $47 million company holding 90 percent of the American market for pineapple. By 1932 the company had dropped in value to just $2.5 million and Dole, the millionaire pineapple king, was forced into a token role in the company.
Pineapple today is a shell of its former self, whittled on Oahu to a specialty export. The big cannery in Iwilei that revolutionized the industry and expanded markets around the world is now a retail complex anchored by a "multiplex" theater. And the pineapple outpost of Lanai has been transformed into a luxury resort destination.
But the company, absorbed by Castle & Cooke before joining the empire of businessman David Murdock and re-emerging as Dole Food Co., is now the world's biggest supplier of fresh fruits and vegetables.
James Dole, who left his name on store shelves around the world, died May 14, 1958, at age 80.
