Retired Amfac Sugar & Agribusiness President Paul S. Sakuda, who supervised development of the HPOWER garbage-to-energy project, died Monday. He was 66. PAUL SAKUDA / 1936-2002
Amfac chief’s people skills
earned workers’ respect
See also: Obituaries
By Leila Fujimori
lfujimori@starbulletin.comDuring his 23 years at Amfac, Sakuda also oversaw the demise of Puna Sugar Co., the first of Amfac's big sugar plantations to shut down.
"He tried to make it as painless as possible for everybody," said Sandy Kelly, who worked with Sakuda at Amfac.
"He was well thought of," said Alan Hayashi, who worked on the HPOWER project. "All the people there respected him as boss and manager. He had tremendous people skills."
Sakuda was hired at Amfac in 1965 to get the company's systems computerized. He also served as vice president of corporate planning of Amfac Inc., becoming one of the first Asian-American officers at Amfac.
In 1983 he rose to the position of president of Amfac Sugar, in which he served until his retirement in 1988.
In 1989 he was appointed as federal bankruptcy trustee and served until 2002.
Born in 1936 in Honolulu, Sakuda graduated in 1954 from Iolani School, where he was a football all-star.
He attended Columbia University on a Navy ROTC scholarship, earning bachelor of arts and bachelor of science engineering degrees.
While there he was an all-star and captain of the varsity lightweight football team. He earned a master of business administration degree in 1965 from Columbia and an advanced management program degree from Stanford University.
Sakuda is survived by wife Judy, son Michael, daughters Cynthia and Sharyn, mother Ruth Chieko, brother David and sisters Anna and Susan.
Services will be at 10 a.m. Sunday at Hosoi Garden Mortuary, with visitation from 9 a.m. The family requests aloha attire and no flowers.
