Developer from Seattle
had big impact in isles

Richard 'Dick' Hadley / Real estate developer

SEE ALSO: OBITUARIES

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By Russ Lynch
rlynch@starbulletin.com

Richard H. "Dick" Hadley, a real estate developer from Seattle who created some of Hawaii's best projects, died Tuesday in Honolulu. He was 80.

Hadley was best known for the Amfac Center, downtown twin towers created in the early 1970s in a joint venture with Amfac Inc. It was one of the first all-steel high-rise complexes in Hawaii.

Hadley, remembered by friends as a stickler for detail and quality, even in humble warehouse properties, developed 30 projects from his Pacific Northwest base, many of them in Hawaii.

Examples are the Whaler, a luxury condominium on Maui's Kaanapali Beach that was Hawaii's first successful timeshare development, and the Waikiki hotel that is now the Radisson Prince Kuhio.

In 1989 his son Robert joined the business, and they created the 717,000-square-foot Airport Industrial Park.

While Hadley was a down-to-earth developer, he had a romantic side, too, as shown in his 1981 purchase of one of the great passenger liners of all time, the SS United States, launched in 1982 as the fastest trans-Atlantic liner.

The ship had gone out of business but was kept in mothballs by the U.S. government, and Hadley planned to spend $200 million to refurbish it and launch it into worldwide cruising, including regular mainland-Hawaii service.

That was just too complicated to pull off, however, and the deal fell through, leaving the ship resting and rusting now in a New Jersey port.

Hadley, who was chairman of Pacific Building Corp. and AIPA Properties, was born in Seattle. In World War II he flew C-47s for the Army Air Corps in Europe. After the war he gained a master's degree in structural engineering and a doctorate in business administration at the University of Washington.

He joined his father's structural engineering business, where he developed his creativity and engineering ability.

He is survived by his wife Barbara, sons Robert and Scott, daughters Lisa Ann and Alisa, sister Eleanor and six grandchildren.

Services will be held at 2 p.m. Sunday at the Pacific Club. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations to the Salvation Army, P.O. Box 620, Honolulu 96809; or the Scottish Rite Childhood Language Disorders Clinic, 1611 Kewalo St., Honolulu 96822.