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Maui man
slain while trying
to stop fight
Nathan Ilar taught keiki
By Gary T. Kubota
horseback riding and diving;
police are looking for a
suspect in his slaying
Star-BulletinWAILUKU -- Nathan Ilar's friends were surprised about his death but not the way he died-- trying to stop a fight.
"He was a peacemaker," said Michaeline Arcangel. "That was his true nature. He was happy-go-lucky, always there for everyone."
Ilar, 32 and part owner of a visitor-related business, died Sunday.
He was struck a couple of times while trying to stop a fight at Cove Park in Kihei on Friday night. He never regained consciousness.
"We don't know whether he was rendered unconscious from the punches or the fall or both," police Lt. Milton Matsuoka said.
Police who have classified the death as a homicide were looking for a man in his 20s who fled, leaving behind a bicycle and a skateboard.
The park is a place where people dive and fish and children learn to ride a surfboard.Ilar went there to meet some male friends for a barbecue, according to a business associate.
Ilar was raised in central Maui. He started a business called "Hawaii Impressions" last December, after working more than 11 years for Akina Aloha Tours Inc.
He began working at Akina Tours as an aide on buses that shuttled the handicapped and impaired between their homes and social and medical services.
He later became a tour driver and sales manager for the company.
"He was an amazing person," said Beth Lau, a partner.
Lau said Ilar liked to ride horses and started a children's riding unit for parades on Maui.
Robin Crabbe, a friend, said she and Ilar worked with the children and taught them how to care for the horses and ride them, with the hope of perpetuating the art of Hawaiian pa'u on Maui.
He also took youths on horseback rides and diving excursions to Makena in south Maui.
Lau said Ilar met some of the children and parents on the beach.
"You know the Maui feeling. He would get to know them and invite everybody," she said.
"He's the kind of guy who, when he had a barbecue, he would feed everybody, then eat."
Lau said when people in the tour industry heard he was starting a business, they volunteered to help him.
"They knew his potential," she said. "Everybody was going to help him out."
Lau said funeral arrangements are being made for Ilar, who wanted his ashes scattered at Honomanu Bay in east Maui, his favorite diving area.
