The skies threatened rain on the overcast morning of November 22, 2017 when James "Jimmy" Wah Yau Wong began his day like every other. He turned on the TV for overnight updates of the news and went outside to pick up the morning newspaper. Probably mentally sorting through his day ahead to manage his family's business, he had already made arrangements with his grandson to drive him around on Thanksgiving Day to deliver food to homebound seniors with the Lanakila Meals on Wheels. But what happened next was both unexpected and unplanned. He made his way back to his favorite chair and in his final moments, fell to his knees, gracefully bringing closure to a truly remarkable life. A fitting and exquisitely prayerful moment before he finally found his heavenly reward for a life well served, Jimmy peacefully passed away at his home at the age of 94.
His life was nothing short of miraculous and blessed. Born on September 18, 1923 to Fang Tai and May Chow Wong in Kahului, Maui, he was a country boy at heart with a curiosity that yearned for grand adventures and exciting challenges ahead. But around the age of thirteen, he was afflicted with a strange paralysis and general wasting away that couldn't be explained. Although his father insisted on the use of Chinese herbal medicine, his mother knew that they were having no effect and instead sought out the prayers of a Catholic healer nearby. She vowed that if her son was healed, she and her children would be baptized as Catholics because she truly believed that a cure for her son could only be through the intervention of the Catholic God. Within six weeks, without herbal or medicinal aid, Jimmy was healed, showing no traces of the crippling affliction that had nearly killed him. And as promised, May Wong and her children converted to Catholicism. This life changing miracle set Jimmy's feet firmly on a path of devotion and service to the Roman Catholic Church.
He went on to graduate from St. Anthony School in Kahului and continued to be a proud supporter of his school all the years of his life. Determined to leave the islands to further his education, he attended Golden Gate University (GGU) in San Francisco with the assistance of the G. I. Bill of 1944 for his years of service in the Pacific arena of World War II. He graduated cum laude from GGU in 1950 and was later recognized for his unwavering commitment to improving the academic environment in Hawaii through higher education. He was awarded Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degrees from Chaminade University of Honolulu in 1969 and also GGU in 1998. He co-founded the Hawaii Tax Institute with Chaminade in 1963.
On January 25, 1947, Jimmy married the love of his life, Ruth Kam Ung Wong of Honolulu. He later recalled thinking it was a match made in heaven. He was tall, athletic, very handsome, intelligent, and ambitious. She was beautiful, strong, with an intellect and a joy of life that matched his. Married for sixty years, they produced three sons, Garret, Warren and Darryl. Ruth passed away suddenly in 2006 and it left an empty space in Jimmy's heart that would never be filled. Warren emphasized that with all the demands of business, his family would always come first. "My mom and brothers were his greatest joy. He would say that he was only able to find success because my mother was always beside him. He did everything with us in mind and was such a devoted, hands-on father. My happiest times were spent with him hunting on the Big Island and I'll never forget his last trip with all three sons to the Beijing Olympics in 2008. Now that empty heart is my own."
His decision to return to Hawaii was fortuitous. He was a rare addition to the business scene in Hawaii with a Certified Public Accounting degree which allowed him a foot in the door to a period of immense and dynamic growth in Hawaii. In the 1950s, tourism was booming and real estate developments were sprouting up everywhere to accommodate the rapid population growth. With his sound financial advice and astute judgment, he had a hand in producing such subdivisions as Enchanted Lakes and Keolu Hills in Windward Oahu, Pearl Harbor Heights in Pearl City, Waialae Kahala and Waialae Iki. He instinctively knew that growth wasn't limited to Hawaii and began to look abroad, finding opportunities in Alaska, Washington, Idaho, California, and Nevada. His son, Darryl, says, "As leader of the family business that now spans three generations, my father (was) an inspiring role model to his children and grandchildren as we venture into the complex role of living his legacy. His decades of active involvement in Hawaii's business, social, political and economic ventures (gave) him wisdom and insight that is valuable beyond measure." And his sons learned it the good old fashioned way - by scrubbing floors and other "hard labor" jobs that taught them invaluable lessons of learning the business from the ground up.
An athlete in his youth, he held the State high jump record in Track and Field that stood for many years and played basketball for his college team. He was a devoted fan of the University of Hawaii, attending almost every home game for men's and women's volleyball and football. He would enjoy recording college and professional football games and binge watch them on weekends. His longevity might also be attributed to his fitness regime - he played tennis with his friends almost every Sunday until two weeks before his death!
It was his instinct and his willingness to take a calculated risk that gave him the edge in business but it was his commitment to community service that drove him to succeed. The more prestige and wealth he earned, the more he could give back. The list of organizations he volunteered with and awards he received fills volumes but the common thread that ran through them was his heartfelt desire to imitate Jesus by word and example. He was passionate about the Boy Scouts, serving on the Aloha Council Board and the Western Region Board. He was Chair of the National Catholic Committee on Scouting. His involvement with the Catholic Church was at nearly every level, serving as an usher at Mass at Sacred Heart Church at the same time he was a Knight in the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem. He journeyed to Lourdes, France to volunteer with the sick who made pilgrimages to the Holy site. He never wavered in giving his time, energy and fundraising savvy to any organization that served Christ even up to the day of his death. On Fridays, until very recently, he would hand out sandwiches and meals to the homeless at Ala Moana Park and at the Institute for Human Services. He was reminded daily of the blessings he had received and would work tirelessly to give to those that were less fortunate than he. Every day he was a living example of the motto of Maryknoll School, "Nobless Oblige." To whom much is given, much is expected. He lived by example a life guided by the love of Christ and of service, selflessness and compassion.
His is a legacy of devotion and love for the people of Hawaii. It was his greatest desire to be a beacon of light to the indigenous people of these islands, with an urgency that grew after he learned of his own Hawaiian blood through his mother's family. He felt it was his kuleana to use his knowledge and abilities to help return the culture of Hawaii to its rightful owners and restore his lands in Manoa so his children, grandchildren and generations of displaced kanaka maoli could have a home where aloha could live and thrive. He never relinquished that dream of renewal and hope.
Jimmy is survived by sisters Laura Medeiros and Rosie Sagon, and brothers Lawrence and Stanley. Preceded in death by his wife, Ruth, Jimmy is survived by sons, Garret (Barbara), Warren (Napualani) and Darryl (Teresa), grandchildren Erin Green (Kirby), Alexander, Breanna, Kauikahanohaweo (Nicole), Kiakahi (Achaia), Leinani, Pokii, Jordan (Marlie), Jenna Dydasco (Zane) and four great-grandchildren.
Services will be held at the Cathedral Basilica of Our Lady of Peace in downtown Honolulu on Wednesday, January 17, 2018. Visitation will be at 8:00 a.m. and services will begin at 8:45 a.m. with Mass by Bishop Larry Silva at 9:15 a.m. Fellowship in Kamiano Center with refreshments will follow at 10:15 a.m. Burial at Hawaiian Memorial Park will be private. Casual attire.
The family asks that in lieu of flowers, donations be made in the memory of James W. Y. Wong to the most recent activities he was devoted to: Our Lady of Peace Cathedral Renovation Fund and the Sacred Heart Church Entryway Building Fund.
James W.Y. Wong
BEATING THE ODDS IN PARADISE
By Nisa Donnelly
In many ways, Jimmy Wong and the Hawaiian Islands he calls home grew up together. Today, at eighty-eight, you can still catch glimpses of the daringly clever boy who ultimately would grow into a formidable business force in both Hawaii and Alaska. It all started in the lush island paradise of Maui.
The world was just becoming acquainted with Hawaii in 1923 when jimmy Wong was born. Hawaiian performers had captured America’s imagination after their performance at the International Exposition in San Francisco in 1915.Statehood was still decades away, but as an American territory, Hawaii was an exotic tourist destination, if difficult to reach. Passenger ships, which had the Royal Hawaiian hotel opened and, by the decades end, air travel between Hawaii and California would at last be established, although it would be 1935 before there were any commercial flights. Those were dizzying days, but for a small boy named Jimmy Wong, they also held a bit of a miracle.
He was only thirteen when a temporary paralysis sometimes left him unable to walk. “And if I could walk, then I couldn’t move my arm.” He recalls. “It went on for months. My fad told my mother to give me herbs to cure it; he wouldn’t let her take me to a regular western doctor. My mother couldn’t do anything, but the other women who lived nearby told her about a Catholic healer they knew. So my mother took me there and the woman checked me out and said there was nothing wrong, but that she would say a Novena for me and maybe that might heal me. I still remember how her place was like a small chapel. My mother promised if I was cured, she would commit the whole family to become Catholic. About four to six weeks after that, I’m cured, and we were all going to be baptized. Everyone, except my dad – but before he passed away, he got converted, too.” It was the beginning of a deep bond between the Wong family and the Roman Catholic Church.
“First and foremost and always my father’s main driving force was to be the best Catholic he could be by living each day in God’s service,” reflects son Darryl Wong. “You will find him feeding the homeless each week at Ala Moana or Kakaako Park with Sacred Heart Church volunteers. Each year he serve holiday dinner to the homebound with the Meals on Wheels program.” Wong is active as a Knight in the Order of Malta, a Roman Catholic lay religious order dating back to the tenth century and which still provides card for the sick who are making pilgrimages. “Each year since 1997 my father has volunteered his cheer and labor at the pilgrimage to Lourdes, France, as he helps the sick and terminally ill find some measure of peace in their lives. This brings him immeasurable joy in return.” Darryl Wong says.
Hi leadership roles within the service arms of the Roman Catholic Church are numerous, including serving in an advisory capacity on the Board of the National Catholic Committee on Scouting. His three sons are Eagle Scouts, and he has been a member of the Western Region Boy Scouts of America Executive Board of Directors since 1993 and the Aloha Council since 1989. He is continually working to raise money for their various projects and serving on their various committees raising awareness of community needs. Also, he is a board member of the ARC in Hawaii, which provides advocacy and quality direct services for children and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. His son reflects. “He has taught by example that it is truly more blessed to give than to receive.”
Wong’s close ties to the church extend into his business side. As one of Hawaii’s most venerable real estate developers, Jimmy Wong was one of the earliest collaborators with the Bishop Estate, the largest private property owner in the islands, and the Roman Catholic Church in Hawaii in creating financial opportunities for their lands. “My father has owned and operated his own real estate development and property management company for almost fifty years.” His son says. “He began his career as a Certified Public Accountant, but through skill, strategy, and hard work, he became one of Hawaii’s most recognized and respected developers with projects ranging from residences, apartments, condominiums, commercial buildings, and shopping centers. He was also the developer of Paradise Park in Honolulu.”
Located just five miles from Waikiki and downtown Honolulu, Paradise Park is fifteen acres of lush tropical rainforest with aviaries filled with exotic birds. As part of the upper Manoa Valley, the park was closed on January 2, 1994, after twenty-six years of continuous operation. In recent years, it has veen used as a filming location for the hit television series “Lost.” Wong is currently considering plans to re-vitalize the facility to include a cultural center and re-open the park. He calls it his “last hurrah.” But it’s that indomitable spirit that keeps him going strong when his contemporaries have long since retired. That spirit prompted the Honolulu Mayor’s Office to name him as one of the inaugural winners of the Forever Young award in 2008. Recipients were selected for exemplifying “successful aging and how to live life to the fullest” and were described by the Mayor’s Office as “Dynamic leaders in the workplace and in the community who understand that hitting sixty-five should no longer automatically bring thoughts of retirement, but a time to explore new challenges.
His day still begins at five o’clock every morning and lasts until his work finished. “He takes a tireless hands-on approach to his work,” his son explains. “But the true key to his success is his passion for seeking new adventures, sorting out the challenges, and bringing them to successful fruition.” That skill set can be traced all the way back to when he was a boy growing up on the island of Maui.
Throughout the fall of 1941, Hawaii was preparing for war. Jimmy was still in high school, more interested in basketball than politics, but the stress was impossible to escape. “We knew there was something going on. We had drills all the time – September, October, November,” he ticks off the months on his fingers. “We were so sick and tired of them. So along comes December 7 and we get through playing basketball and we see all these troops out there and I think, ‘Oh, no! Not again.’ But then we turned on the radio and learned it was the real thing. The Japanese actually were bombing Pearl Harbor.”
His home in Kahului Harbor on Maui was about ninety miles from Pearl Harbor on Oahu. “I’d been telling my mom that we needed to build a bomb shelter, but we never did. That evening, the night of the Pearl Harbor attack, a submarine came into Kahului Harbor and started shelling, just for the sake of doing it, I suppose because there was nobody around,” He pauses, reflecting for a moment then confides, “I have to tell you, if the Japanese had actually invaded Hawaii at that time, they would have take it because we were so ill-prepared. Nobody was ready.” He remembered turning to his mother and saying, “Well, we’d be better build our shelter.” The war in the Pacific was officially underway, but it would be another three years before Jimmy was drafted into the fray, just in time for the Battle of the Bulge.
“I was supposed go to several battles, but missed them. It was just fate,” he reflects. Like most young men living in Hawaii at the start of the war, Wong was interested in volunteering. In 1942 many of his friends who were Japanese volunteered and ended up in the 100th Infantry Battalion, an all Japanese American fighting unit. At the time of Pearl Harbor, persons of Japanese descent comprise nearly 35 percent of the population in Hawaii.
The commander of the US Army in Hawaii eventually recommended to the War Department that rather than worrying about the loyalty of the Japanese-American men of fighting age, we should organize them into a Hawaiian Battalion and send it to the mainland. “My friends, the boys I played basketball with, all went to the 100th Battalion and the 442nd Regiment. We were all about the same age, seventeen years or so, and you’re young and you don’t have any sense, so we all wanted to join up,” Wong recalls. But his efforts were rebuffed. “They said, ‘No, you’re not Japanese and so you can’t volunteer.’ So I went home and decided that I would just have to stay home and probably go to the University of Hawaii.” But in war tim, life is unpredictable and before he could go on to college, Wong was drafted and shipped to Camp Robinson in Arkansas. It was 1944 and the war in Europe had roared into high gear.
“Instead of having sixteen weeks of basic training, they said we would have to do it in twelve weeks because we were going to be shipped to the European Theater. But before being shipped out, we were allowed to go home to see our families. We were from all over the country and each of us was going home; back New York, California, wherever the families were. There were about six of us from Hawaii, and we wanted to go home, too. They told us you can go anyplace, just not to Hawaii.” We had ten days of furlough that would begin as soon as we reached our destination so we decided that since Hawaii was out, we would pick a destination that was far away but still agreeable to the Army: Seattle Washington, which was seven days travel by train.” By the time their two-week leave in Seattle leave had ended-including another ten days of travel to Fort Meade, Maryland-the rest of their unit had already left the camp for the war in Europe.
They didn’t know what to do with us at that point. We had missed the Battle of the Bulge. After a couple of weeks, they finally decided to send us to the Pacific via California.” We were processed and sent off on a caravan of troop ships headed for the war in the Pacific. “We’d been on the ship about eight or ten days, and the day we anchored, we looked through the portal and discovered were in Pearl Harbor. All six of us decided to go talk to the chaplain and see if we could obtain permission so we could get off the ship and go home. He talked to the commanding officer, but to no avail.”
So Jimmy took up his pen to write to Ruth, the young woman who would eventually become his wife: “I’m so close to home, but you’re so far away.” (Year later after her death in 2006, he would discover that letter along with other clippings among her memorabilia.) Two weeks later after leaving Pearl Harbor, the group was on the island of Yap, which Wong has always remembered because his wife’s family name was Yap, and then on to the Philippines where the war was escalating toward the seemingly inevitable Battle of Mindanao.
They told us we all were going to be processed in the island of Leyte and we’d be fighting on the island of Mindanao within ten days. However, there were certain specialty classifications for soldiers with skills that they needed and anyone could take the exam for those particular skills. If you passed it, you might get an exemption being shipped go Mindanao.” The skill list contained a series of specialized positions from mechanical engineer to typist. “While I certainly wasn’t a mechanical engineer, I had taken typing in high school” It was worth a shot even though 300 of the 500 personnel on the ship were taking the same exam. Much to his surprise and delight, it was the same typing test he took in his typing course in high school. So he gladly typed, “Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country“ and hoped for the best. The score would be posted in three of four days and it meant the difference between becoming a rifleman in battle and becoming reclassified as a specialist, so he had to smile when his name was posted with his new assignment as a clerk typist. He was released from infantry and assigned to the military government pool as a clerk. During that time, he kept in contact with a good friend (who later became his Best Man at his wedding) who happened to be the secretary for the Chief of Staff of Sixth division the second highest ranking officer in command. He asked his friend if he could ask his boss about the possibility of a transfer to the Finance Office of the Sixth Division. It took a month, but off he went to Manila. Within three months, the was had ended and in October 1945, he was assigned to be part of the original occupying troops in Korea.
In Korea, soldiers were discharged and sent home based on a point system of years of service, years of overseas, number of areas of conflict and any medal or awards received so most of the battle-experienced soldiers had hundreds of points. In the Finance Office, Jimmy and his friends only had about fifty. It looked like he was going to be in the Army for a long time. Quickly, though, as soldiers were discharged, he was the Sergeant in charge of the Finance Office for the 6th Division. It was 1946 when he finally was released from service.
However, Jimmy’s goal had always been to attend a four-year college on the government’s tab, and he had only qualified for two and a half so he decided to re-enlist another year and was assigned to the Finance Office at Fort Shafter in Honolulu. He worked in the audit department, and his primary job was to audit the officer’s and non-commissioned officers’ clubs, which had slot machines that were only legal on military bases and transacted in cash. Finally, on December 2, 1947, Jimmy had fully qualified for college assistance and was discharged from active duty. But his skills in the audit office brought him to the attention of a colonel who offered Jimmy the opportunity to be in charge of all the audits for the officers’ clubs and noncommissioned officers club in Hawaii. “He wanted to give me a commission as a Second Lieutenant to stay but I wanted to go for a four-year college grant,” he explains. “That was why I re-enlisted for an additional year in the first place. My friends though I was crazy to let it pass because it was a great job, bur I was determined to go to school.” Jimmy would be the first in his family and the only one of his parents’ nine children to go to college. He had settled on three universities that the Veteran’s Administration recommended: the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Chicago, and Golden Gates in San Francisco. In a twist that sounds a bit like the Goldilocks tale when he explains it, Philadelphia was too cold, Chicago too big and inhospitable, but Golden Gate in San Francisco ended up being just right.
Jimmy arrived in San Francisco in 1947 with idea of earning an Associate’s Degree in two years beginning to fade. “I said to myself ‘Forget not going there,’ Chicago I didn’t like. I decided to go home. In the meantime, I’m talking to my future wife and I told her about the information U had from Golden Gate College. It didn’t have a campus, it was still in the YMCA in downtown San Francisco, and I was unsure about what kind of place it was going to be. She suggested I take a look, since I had to be in California anyway to go home to Hawaii. So I went there and met Dr. Nagel Miner and told him I wanted a good education in accounting, and he said I’d come to the right place. I decided to try for one semester. The classes were excellent and the majority of the instructors were adjunct professors who were teaching at the same time they held professional jobs. That was what I was looking for. So I told Ruth that I was coming home to settle some other unfinished business. We were married on January 25, 1947.” He and Ruth would be married for sixty years and rear three sons, Garret, Warren and Darryl.
In those days, Golden Gate College was affiliated with the YMCA and housed on Golden Gate Avenue (from which the school ultimately drew its name). At the end of World War II, Golden Gate had structured its academic programs to meet the demands of the returning soldiers, offering an array of daytime and night classes to take advantage of the then-new GI Bill, which funded higher education for veterans. It was a good fit for the young vet from Hawaii.
Jimmy moved into a room at the YMCA and started his course-work in accounting. Attending school on the GI Bill of Rights, he needed to supplement his income so he tool up a job working as a waiter/handyman for the Fraternity Club of San Francisco. An added bonus was eating one meal a day for free. After his second year in school, he became an assistant to one of his professors, grading test papers and tutoring disadvantaged students. “I thought I would finish up my Associate’s Degree, come home to my wife, and find a job. But Ruth, understanding my goals and aspirations, encouraged me to stay and finish my bachelor’s degree. So I took her advice and stayed at Golden Gate and kept myself busy.” Even with his studies, work schedule, and volunteer work, he developed the school’s first basketball program and played against other professional schools and junior colleges in the Bay Area.
In his senior year, Jimmy had a class in municipal accounting, and his professor asked if he would be taking the Certified Public Accountant exam. “I didn’t even know what that was,” he recalled. This professor, who had his own accounting practice, was especially sensitive to the plight of Asian students who often faced racial discrimination on the West Coast during those years. “He used to hire all the Asian students: Japanese, Chinese, Filipino, and he encouraged me to take the CPA exam and go to work for him. At the time, San Francisco had a tremendous amount of corporations – we were almost competing with New York. So I went to school half a day and worked the rest of the day, which gave me some extra income.” While he was living at the Y and taking classes at Golden Gate, he became acquainted with the facilities manager, who eventually asked if he’d like to take over some of the bookkeeping. “I quickly went through the work so that when I finished I could study. Finally, she stopped trying to keep up with me.” He smiles at the memory. When he graduated, the manager offered him a permanent position, but Jimmy wanted to go home and on with his life.
He would graduate with the class of 1950. At the time Golden Gate had one of the top accounting programs in California, with its graduates earning top scores on the CPA exams. Indeed, the college had a stellar reputation in the field and he attended classes with two Sells’ Award winners in the class of 1951, Charles Steele, who won the gold medal for earning the highest score in the country that year, and who went on to become a managing partner in Deloitte, Haskins, & Sells, and Frank Weinberg, who earned the second highest score in California and who would go on to become a beloved longtime faculty member in the School of Accounting.
Despite a recession in Hawaii, Jimmy was optimistic about his prospects of finding a job in Hawaii. Ruth wasn’t so sure. “I told her, ‘There’s one opening for me. I don’t know what it is yet, but it’s for me.’ So when I came back home, I found out where there was an opening.”
In 1950, CPAs were rare in Hawaii. Today, there are some 2,800, but when Jimmy arrived home, there were only 110. He was quickly hired and cut a deal with his new employer to work for lower wages in order to gain enough experience to qualify for a certificate that was required at the time. Eventually, James W. Y. Wong, CPA, hung out is shingle, complete with his certificate of experience.
In those early days, fate seemed to sometimes intercede in fortunate ways. He remembers his first office and not having enough resources to buy the then-popular and expensive steel furnishings. But he’d heard that a retired public accountant had some second-hand office furnishings that were within his budget. “I went there and they had all these office furnishings in antique koa; tables, chairs, everything. All pure koa, but cheap. I paid a couple of hundred dollars to furnish my entire office.” Koa, dubbed the “wood of kings” is native to Hawaii and highly prized by makers of fine furniture. “I took the furniture to a re-finisher and asked how much it would cost to restore the pieces to their original beauty and luster. I didn’t know what treasure I had until he asked me if I would sell everything to him. When he told me how much value I had in all that rare Hawaiian wood, I knew it was a good sign and there was no way I was letting go of that furniture.” It was an elegant start to a stellar career. “So I buy the furniture and go home and tell my wife, ‘I’m in business.’ I started making money.” He stills owns all that furniture he bought over sixty years ago and both have served him well.
Hawaii in the 1950s was dynamic. The power of the plantation owners had been broken and Hawaii’s residents were campaigning for statehood, which would be granted by the decade’s end. Tourism was becoming an important part of the economy and population swelled as transportation from the mainland to the island improved. The 1950 census showed just fewer than 500,000 residents, a number that would increase steadily to the 2010 count of more than 1.3 million.
Business practices were expanding as well. “Being a CPA in the 1950s was not like it is today.” Jimmy explains. “You were hired to do accounting, audits, taxes, but no management advice. It was considered a conflict of interest at the time. But I thought, ‘Forget that! I’m going to give my clients advice anyway.’ That’s primarily why they hired me, to give them good advice.” It was through one of his clients, a real estate developer, that Jimmy came to be involved in the real estate development projects that would ultimately become his brand. We became the biggest developer in Hawaii, producing residential subdivisions such as Enchanted Lakes and Kailua Heights in Kailua in Windward Oahu, Pearl Harbor Heights in Pearl city, Manoa Gardens and Waialae-Iki.” Ultimately, the relationship with the developer ended with Jimmy selling back all his stock to the company.
About ten years later, Jimmy became interested in another new state that was ripe for development prospects: Alaska. “I went to Australia and tried to so some investing there, but it was too far. Then I went to Guam and that didn’t work out. Finally I decided to go to Alaska.” The appeal for Alaska was unique: Wong was drawn in because the fishing was good. “The reason I decided to go is I had three boys,” he explains. “Every year my wife and I took them on a family vacation to the mainland and all they wanted to do was to go fishing. Then in 1962, we took them to the Seattle World’s Fair, the eldest, Garret, was ten and the youngest six.” During the fair, the Wong family visited the Alaska exhibit, which featured pictures of vast wilderness, grizzly bears catching salmon, hardy sportsmen on adventures by the lakes and streams and in mountains. Before long, they began planning to visit Alaska. “We loved it so much,” he recalls of that first visit. “We went during the summer and it was great.” But if fishing was what first drew Jimmy Wong to Alaska, the potential to develop real estate was what kept him coming back. Jimmy took the business model that had made him a success in Hawaii and transferred it to Alaska.
Over the ensuing decades, his development projects and real estate holdings would help shape the landscape of two vastly different states through residential and large commercial projects that include shopping centers and apartment developments. His son Darryl explains “As leader of the family business that now spans three generations, my father continues to be an inspiring role model to his children and grandchildren as we venture into the complex role of living his legacy. His decades of active involvement in Hawaii’s business, social, political and economic ventures have given him wisdom and insight that is valuable beyond measure.”
Always with an eye to the future, Jimmy focused not only on building his own business, but of increasing the business competency of his profession. Shortly after opening his practice in the early 1950s, Jimmy started teaching accounting as an adjunct professor at Chaminade University, a private Catholic University, a private Catholic university founded in 1955, where he would later found the Hawaii Tax Institute, now a forty-eight year tradition in continuing professional education. “I started teaching at the institute when it was first starting. They couldn’t pay and I said I would teach accounting and taxes.” His teaching model ultimately drew on the style of instruction he’d experienced at Golden Gate, only now he was the professor bringing his professional expertise to the classroom, and the students were eager young accountants. One student so impressed him that Jimmy let her take over his accounting practice.
“The institute has been a tremendous benefit to Hawaii’s business community,” Darryl Wong explains. “My father will tell you that it is he who continues to be the student – learning all he can about issues of importance and sharing what he has learned with people, whether they are our highest elected officials or a man living in a homeless shelter.”
The elder Wong’s commitment to higher education prompted him to serve on the Chaminade University and Golden Gate University boards. His contributions were recognized with honorary doctorated from each university. At Golden Gate University, Jimmy joined the Board of Trustees in 1985, serving for fifteen years. He was named the Golden Gate University Alumnus of the Year in 1988 and received the honorary doctorate in 1998.
“My father constantly meets with members of our legislature and business community to share the values he believes in so that our children’s children can continue to live in Hawaii. He hopes to bring positive change to the community with his knowledge.” Jimmy’s civic-minded commitments included being a member of the Hawaii Board of Accountancy, the Department of Planning and Economic Development, the Board of Review II for real property tax appeals of the City and C0unty of Honolulu, the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, and the Housing Finance and Development Corporation.
In looking back over his long and successful career James W.Y. Wong reflects on the challenges he’s faded and the opportunities that he realized, and much of his success rests on the foundation of his education. “The university has been so good to me. My success has been because of being able to build on everything I’ve done. I look at all the things I’ve been able to do, starting back when I was just a kid, and I realize the more I gave to others, the more I have received. I try always to exemplify the motto of Maryknoll School: ‘To whom much is given, much is expected. ‘”
Interviewed by Dan Angel President
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