Hal and Lei Darcey used a chance meeting in a popular Honolulu night spot to build a 43-year marriage and a three-decades-old business, Darcey Builders Inc.

Several decades later, their son Mike, who got his start in the family business sweeping and filling the soda machine, followed suit when he fell in love with Marie, a waitress at Bobby McGee's. Married in 1992 and now with two children of their own, the couple is preparing to take up where their parents have left off.

The elder Darceys, who now serve as chairman and director, are nearing the end of a 20-year succession plan that calls for their eventual retirement. But, while they have grown less passionate about the business, they are no less passionate about each other. A glass window separates their work spaces, allowing them to keep an eye on each other and on the business. They are together, yet separate, and that's how they like it.

“;Throughout the day, we'll look over at each other,”; said Lei, who joined Hal as bookkeeper of the family business when Mike and their two adopted daughters, Jacque and Erin, got older.

Working together brought them closer together, Hal said.

“;When I was building the business without my wife's involvement, it was almost like the business was another woman,”; he said. “;Explaining the late hours and the demands and keeping the spouse aware of all of it is never easy. When you are both involved, you are both aware of the challenges and can appreciate them.”;

Looking back on their life together, it is hard to believe that it all began when Hal, a 19-year-old New Jersey submariner fresh from patrol, met Lei in a Honolulu nightclub. “;Other guys had been asking me to dance and I turned them down,”; Lei said. “;When he asked me to cha cha, I said yes.”;

Lei appreciated Hal even more when he agreed to attend church with her the next morning. And she was sold when he didn't take off after meeting her 1-and-a-half-year-old son Mike.

Hal was instantly smitten by Lei and months later was ready to propose, he said.

“;She was beautiful and, in my eyes, very exotic,”; Hal said. “;She was just very charming.”;

“;Aw shucks,”; Lei said, shrugging her shoulders at her husband's praise.

But there's no discounting Hal's instincts since the couple's marriage is still going strong, and so is Darcey Builders, the business they launched as a sole proprietorship in the 1970s. Working together, the couple parlayed Hal's passion for woodworking into a one-man cabinet and millwork shop. The company has grown to become an industry leader in commercial and custom home construction and renovation. The work, which is enough for more than 40 employees, spans the isles.

Mike, who was fired by his father Hal in 1983 when he was a cocky teen, is taking over as secretary/treasurer, and the part-Hawaiian Marie will lead the company into the next generation as president of what will become a minority-owned business eligible to go after a larger share of federal contracts. The younger Darceys are now the majority stockholders of the company their parents built.

“;Like a lot of companies, we're in survival mode,”; Hal said. “;Our volume was reasonable last year, but the margins have been tough in this economy. The federal sector has considerably more work.”;

The younger Darceys, who have worked in the family business together for the last nine years, say their bonds as a couple and as a family have grown stronger, too.

“;The bond is much deeper now,”; Marie said. “;I sit so close to Mike that I can actually understand what he is doing. I see him in a whole different light.”;

Mike is mentoring Marie just as Hal mentored him before the company began focusing on the federal market.

Helping his wife prepare to assume leadership of the family business has been easy, Mike said. Keeping the romance alive while doing it has been harder, he said.

“;There is so much togetherness that we've had to create separate space,”; he said. “;The relationship is harder than work, but it's so worth it.”;

While they differ in management styles, the importance of building good relationships is a concept that both couples support.

Although Lei has not relinquished her bookkeeping duties or management of the family's secondary parking business, she said she has scaled back so that she can join Hal in devoting more time to Rotary and to improving the lives of orphaned children in Asia.

“;We've paid our dues, now it's their turn,”; she said.