Bob Dye, a local author, historian, journalist and a former aide to both Honolulu Mayor Frank Fasi and U.S. Rep. Cec Heftel, has died.

Friends said Dye died Friday after a long battle with cancer. His friend Jim Loomis said Dye was 81.

Dye served as Fasi's executive assistant and as an administrative assistant to Heftel. Both Fasi and Heftel also died last week.

Dye's books include “;Merchant Prince of the Sandalwood Mountains: Afong and the Chinese in Hawaii,”; a book about Hawaii's first Chinese millionaire. He also wrote a number of articles every year for Honolulu Magazine on Hawaii history.

Paul Devens, Fasi's corporation counsel, said Dye had a love of the arts and was a “;man of ideas.”;

“;He always had something to offer, to put on the table that was worth consideration by his colleagues,”; he said.

“;He's a gentle guy, a very kind man”; with a sense of humor, said Loomis, a former Fasi cabinet member.

He said Dye organized the Honolulu Ballet in the 1970s after Fasi gave him the project. Dye hired Tessa Magoon as balletmistress and the couple fell in love and married.

Dye also unsuccessfully ran for mayor in the 1980s.

“;He was an absolutely voracious reader,”; said Bill Hamilton, director of the University of Hawaii Press, who edited Dye's books. “;He knew every major book ever written on Hawaii.”;

For several years before his death, Dye had been working on a book about King Kalakaua's travels, taking the same journeys as Kalakaua to the West Coast, New York, London, Scotland and France.

“;He was still writing it,”; Hamilton said. “;He was putting the finishing touches on it.”;

The book was planned to be published as “;Travels with Ali'i.”;

“;He just loved Hawaii, its people, its culture, its history,”; Hamilton said.

“;You knew immediately that you were going to enjoy reading the stories that he put together,”; Hamilton said. “;He just had a descriptive style that was engaging and entertaining.”;

Last June, he released his first novel “;Humble Honest Men,”; published by Watermark Publishing that looked at similarities in Irish and Hawaiian culture.

“;Bob was an amazing guy,”; said Star-Bulletin political reporter Richard Borreca. He recalled Dye had been a University of Hawaii history professor before working for the city.

Students had rallied to keep Dye at the university after the administration canceled his classes.

Borreca said several things Fasi did as mayor, such as the People's Open Market, were because of Dye.

“;He was like a social conscience for the Fasi administration,”; Borreca said.

Dye's wife, Tessa, died of cancer in 2002. He is survived by five children.