Decades after he had served as deputy governor for the Western Carolines for the U.S. Trust Territory of the Pacific, William Vincent Vitarelli was still affectionately called “;rubak,”; or respected elder, by Palauans.

The Palauans came by carloads to entertain him in East Maui when he celebrated his 98th birthday.

“;He believed that the people had the potential to run their own government and all they needed was economic development and education,”; his daughter Margo said.

Vitarelli died last Tuesday under hospice care at his home in Haiku. He was 99.

Vitarelli, born in New York City, received a doctorate in sociology from Columbia University in 1948. He worked as an educational administrator and community development official in Micronesia for more than 30 years, in areas including Palau, Guam, Saipan, Yap and the Marshall Islands.

He directed the building of schools in Palau after World War II, supervising youths sometimes to haul coral blocks on rafts ashore, and helped to establish the first sawmill in Palau, according to a historical book titled “;Leadership in the Pacific Islands: Traditions and the Future.”;

He also helped to establish a furniture factory and to develop more than a dozen fishing boats to help feed people at the school.

In 1954, during the height of the McCarthy era, Vitarelli was accused of being a communist sympathizer and was fired from his administrative post.

Vitarelli, a Quaker and a peace advocate, won a landmark U.S. Supreme Court case against the U.S. government and was reinstated in 1959 with full back pay. He retired in 1970.

Vitarelli served later as vice president for research and development at the University of Guam and as a special adviser to a school in Palau to perpetuate traditional skills and values.

He moved to Maui in 1976 with his family and first wife, Henrietta. She died in 2003.

Vitarelli built his home in Haiku and remained active in the arts, creating wooden sculptures and painting. On his 97th birthday he married his second wife, Charlaine, a poet.

Vitarelli was buried at sea on Thursday. A memorial service is scheduled for 1 p.m. Sunday at his home in Haiku. He is survived by wife Charlaine; children Sandy, Margo, David and Don Vitarelli, and Janice Miyoshi; 12 grandchildren; and 14 great-grandchildren.