A genius at assessing public needs and desires both as a media executive and statesman, Cecil Heftel was among Hawaii's most successful figures in recent decades. Heftel died at the age of 85 at San Diego last Thursday.

“;Cec”; Heftel succeeded in making KGMB the leader in television news and the most listened-to radio station from the mid-1960s and beyond. Sadly, his passing came a day after the death of longtime former Honolulu Mayor Frank Fasi and a day before the death by cancer of author and historian Bob Dye, 81, who had been a valued public servant to both Fasi and Heftel.

Born in Chicago, Heftel arrived in Honolulu in 1964 after his company purchased KGMB radio and television. He hired Bob Sevey as news anchor and “;Checkers and Pogo”; for TV; and Hal Lewis, using the radio name of J. Akuhead Pupule, then Michael W. Perry and Larry Price immediately after Lewis' death in 1983 to dominate the radio airwaves.

After his election to represent the 1st Congressional District in the U.S. House in 1976, Heftel regretfully sold the KGMB television station and later sold the radio station, now KSSK. He resigned from Congress nearing the end of his fifth and final term in 1986 to run for governor and enjoyed a comfortable lead in the polls only days before the primary election.

What followed was one of the ugliest chapters in Hawaii politics. An interrogation document containing unsupported hearsay directed at scandalizing Heftel was leaked from the city prosecutor's office and mailed to more than 20 people, including news reporters. While the smear was not reported in the media, Heftel blamed word-of-mouth spreading of it for his defeat to John Waihee.

Heftel moved to California and expanded Heftel Broadcasting, establishing Spanish-language stations across the nation, by merger or outright purchases of stations. Renamed Hispanic Broadcasting, the company went public in 1996 and is now part of Univision Communications Inc.

Forever committed to public service, Heftel returned to Hawaii and was elected as an at-large member to a four-year term to the state Board of Education in 2004. At the age of 80, he chose in 2008 not to seek reelection.

Whether directing radio or television media or engaging public policy, Heftel was known as having an uncanny ability to recognize opportunities and make things work, whether in the private or public sector.