Samuel Northrup Castle
Big businessman
By Rob Perez
wore knickers
Star-BulletinHE was known as the savvy businessman in knickerbockers. During his heyday in the mid-1900s, Samuel Northrup Castle was considered one of Hawaii's top engineers and industrialists.
He served as director or executive at many of the islands' leading companies, including Castle & Cooke, the company his grandfather, also named Samuel Northrup Castle, co-founded in 1851.
Castle usually was seen driving around town in one of his antique cars. He often wore what many considered his trademark: knee-high knickerbockers.
Members of the Castle family, starting with his grandfather, founded or helped develop much of Hawaii's industry, including the Honolulu Rapid Transit Co., Honolulu Gas Co., Oahu Railway and Land Co., and many sugar plantations. His first cousin, Harold K. Castle, used to head Kaneohe Ranch Co.
Castle was born in Honolulu on Feb. 6, 1880. He received an engineering degree from Harvard University in 1901 and did graduate work at Cornell for two years. Once out of school, Castle worked for some major U.S. companies, including Westinghouse and General Electric.
His local career included stints as a director of the Honolulu Advertiser, Halemano Co. and Kohala Sugar Co. He died of a heart ailment in 1959.
