January 2017 Hawaii Business Magazine by Hawaii Community Foundation

5~S.

~~-~-~—-

.~,

~ ~

“S

—~E5

__________— — —

~ ~—

~. ~.

~ :~

‘~‘~ ~

:~-~

•;1•~ç -

-~,••

____ ..-—S ~•

J~,.-

“7-~ ‘

~The Hawaii Nature Center inMakikiis now named for the Weinber~j

HARRY WEINBERG AMASSED A FORTUNE IN LOCAL REAL ESTATE AND W~ØRE1~iôWNED

for.i~eing a financially savvy guy, who c~.joled and exas perated the top executives of comp~n~es~he invested in. i~i~iever, what most surprised Kit Si~ñith, who covered,’~’ him for decades as a Honolulu Advertiser business re porter, ~.vas his,di~dain for the trappings of wealth. “By no means your~ averagE billionaire,” Smith says. ¶ Weinberg. wa~ a brilliant guy who came from the streets and didn’t. have a. formal e~i~ation’, says Walter Dods, retired CEO and chaii~an àf First Hawaiian Bank. “He always felt he could find a better way to do~things,” Dods says. ~‘He ~as v~ry controversial in his daSr and a reall~r tough guy. But..a lot of the things he said turned out to be correct. ¶ “I always tell people the irony is all the soãiety people in Hawaii pretty much disliked him at the time and today all ofthé societypeo~le in Hawaii whb run major charitable organizations go oh thefr hands and knees to the Wein b~rg~Foundationfdrdonations, ~o it~’s kind of like a full circle. I find it’prett~ humorous.” 138 JANUARY 2017

HAWAII BUSINESS

,_5 •‘~~‘~

--5,. _.4~.

~ ‘5,_

.7’_p•_

•~ ,~

S. ~

Dods recalls when his former boss, then-First Hawaiian CEO John Bellinger, and Bobby Pfeiffer, then CEO of Alexan der .& Baldwin Inc., co-chaired a com mitte•ë in the 198 Os to raise money for a ne~ building for ~Palama Settlement. Back then, Dods says, weinberg did not give a lo~ ‘ofmone~’to the community. However, Palama Settlement served the poor and that touched Weinberg’s heart. “They kept pushing and pushing him, • and he finally screamed at the two of them, ‘I’ll tell you what. I’ll give a hun dred-thousand dollars,’ which in those days was a big gift, and he said, ‘And you go around town and you tell everybody else if a Jew can give a hundred-thousand dollars, you, Amfac, and A&B, and all the major companies better do better than that.’ That was a famous quote at the time that everybody laughed about, but that was kind of Harry Weinberg style.”

ALWAYS AN ENTREPRE EUR Weinberg was a hard worker and suc cessful entrepreneur from a young age. He and his brothers worked at their fa ther’s car repair shop in Baltimore, but Harry also sold newspapers, American flags and whatever else he could to make money and provide for his family. Later, he built a transportation empire and owned bus lines in Honolulu, New

Yor hin laia con Je dri lac real tati sa tim “He en was lic aske pan] scrit in Frar city cal C ham the cien to K that Kau reSU oWfl

:---r

.~y;, • •

4 ‘:

---:

•

i,.. ~

~,. ~

I,) ~

—.

~ _~_~

:r~.-

-“--

•.~

•

.~‘“

.•.-~ •

for being a financially savvy uy, who-c4ioled and exas perated the top executives of ~omp~n~es he invested in. ñ~wever, what most surpi~ise’d Kit Sthith, who covered him fôr decades as a Honolulu Advertiser business re~ port~r, wa~ h s,ai~dain for the trappings of wealth. “By no means your’ áverag~ bffii’o~aire,” Smith says. ¶ Weinberg. was a brilliant guy who’came from the streets and didn’t~. have a formal eduéation, says Walter Dods, retired CEO and chaii~man àf First Hawaiian Bank. “He always felt he could find a better way to do things,” Dods says. ‘~He was very cdntroversial in his da~r ~nd a reall~r tough guy. But a lot of the things he said turned out to be correct. ¶ “I always tell people the irony is all .the socIety people in Hawaii pretty much disliked him atthe time and today all of the society people in Hawaii who run major charitable organizations go on their hands ándknees to the Wein berg Foundation for donations, so it’s kind of like a full circle. I find it pretty humorous.” 138 ANUARY 2017 HAWAII BUSINESS

be .

~‘.

‘I,

•~b

—

..•~

—

:—. . 7~t

It.

. -I.-. . ..

I.•

•.

~r’~

__. -

.-~ --

.I~4

•3~L ,4.~

THE HAWAII COMMUNITY LflITTiYMi, ‘~

-,.-.-. .•;_•, •~&-. I. ~ -

•

:,..: ..‘-.

i • . g ~ ~::~ ~ ..

•.

.,,—

—______

‘~:

‘~.,

~ ~-‘~•“.

t#~

fil.c

:-~-~

•

I...

HARRY WEINBERG AMASSED A. FORTUNE IN LOCAL REAL ESTATE AND WAS,RENOWNED

1,,. -

•

‘-“-~-

~The Hawaii Nature Center in Makiki is now named for the Weinber~j

..‘••,

-~ -

~ ~“ •-~ :~w~.~”--•’ ‘•.‘

.‘e :1

—

•~

“1?

~ b• -~ . ~ .~“-•~ ~‘~‘• ‘~-~ ‘,, ‘ “ ‘~‘~

•

‘-~‘-.~‘~-‘.~

Dods recalls when his former boss, then-First Hawaiian CEO John Bellinger, and Bobby Pfeiffer, then CEO of Alexan der & Baldwin Inc., co-chaired a com mittee in the 1980s to raise money for a new building for Palama Settlement. Back then, Dods says, Weinberg did not give a lot of money to the community. However, Palama Settlement served the poor and that touched Weinberg’s heart. “They kept pushing and pushing him, and he finally screamed at the two of them, ‘I’ll tell you what. I’ll give a hun dred-thousand dollars; which in those days was a big gift, and he said, ‘And you go around town and you tell everybody else if a Jew can give a hundred-thousand dollars, you, Amfac, and A&B, and all the major companies better do better than that.’ That was a famous quote at the time that everybody laughed about, but that was kind of Harry Weinberg style.”

[WAYS AN ENTREPRENEUR Weinberg was a hard worker and suc cessful entrepreneur from a young age. He and his brothers worked at their fa ther’s car repair shop in Baltimore, but Harry also sold newspapers, American flags and whatever else he could to make money and provide for his family. Later, he built a transportation empire and owned bus lines in Honolulu, New

Yor Dallas and Scranton. What made him successful, according to Corbett Ka larnw, VP of real estate investments and c&fimunitX. affairs for the Harry and Jeanette Wéi’i~iberg. Foundation, was his drive and abilit~r to see value where others lacked en~ugh patience especially in the realestate as~ociated with those transpor tationcompanies. Weinberg managed money very tightly, says retired.’ Judge Art Fong, recalling a time he stayed with Weinberg in Baltimore. “He owned all these places that he had talcen o’.er by foreclosure. So, realistically, he was a sñ~art businessman,” Fong says. Fong was working at the Hawaii Pub lic Utilities Commission when Weinberg asked for a fare increase for his bus com pany, which the PUC opposed. Fong de scribes Weinberg as a fighter who believed in what he did all the way, until Mayor Frank~ Fasi brought~ in new buses and the city implemented a public bus system. Weinberg also .bought stock in big lo cal companies, such.as A&B and Dilling ham Corp.,’ and positioned himself on the boards so he could point out ineffi ciencies in the organizations. According to Kalama, Weinberg was able to parley that into owning land on Maui, Oahu and Kauai: “A lot of the land there came as a result of his involvement and his stock ownership in companies.” Today, his

—

foundation owns land in Hawaii valued at $800 million. Retired Judge Jim Burns says Weinberg was always friendly and courteous with him, but it seemed that his sole priority in life was to accumulate cash and asse .“ conclusion was that, to him, it was a Mo nopoly game he wanted to win,” Burns s “Remembering how many people didn’t like him, I smile at what he did with his estate:’

EIND[RG’S LEGACY Weinberg established his foundation, named after himself and his wife, Jeanette, in 1959. When he died in 1990, his trust was valued at $900 million. Today, the founda tion is valued at $2 billion and, since 1980, has given about $2 billion in grants. “He was a very hardworking visionary who ba sically had a huge heart;’ Kalama says. “He was a strong advocate for those w less fortunate and a model for people to follow. He could very well have just lived a very luxurious life but he lived very frugal ly because his mission in life was to work for the poor and needy.” When Smith covered business news for The Honolulu Advertiser, he interviewed Weinberg a time or two in his ground-floor Iwilei office. Smith thinks Weinberg al most took pride in the place being so bare, adding that Weinberg had a gruff exterior and spoke in short sentences, but Smith

wants others to see the importance of estates and legacy gifts, like the one Harry Weinberg created with his foundation. To encourage more such legacy gifts, HCF launched its Hawaii Legacy Giving Cam paign last year, its 100th anniversary. The foundation has been providing nonprofits with tools through workshops, meetings and webinars to help them increase the legacy gifts they receive. Currently, HCF has partnered with more than 100 organizations. The primary focus is to help organizati get over the discomfort they may feel when talking about legacy giving, b tend to relate such gifts to death, sa Curtis Sakai, VP of philanthropy counsel at HCF. Liz Makarra, development manager at the Waikiki Health Center, says the founda tion’s campaign encourages the center to create de and to open the door to conversations they wouldn’t n ‘Many of them have been supporting us for many, many years, so that challenge i .

of a better word, in a loving and respect leaving a legacy and what that means. And really that means: Consider us when making your will and in trusts,’ Makarra says. Inger Tully, developm~ t director at the Maui Arts and C the foundation’s toolkit, which includes resources such as sample letters, walks theno of legacy giving. As with the Waikiki Health Center, this cam at the forefront of conversations, especi. with Maui Arts and Cultural Center’s devel .

According to HCF’s Planned Giving Toolkit, nonprofits in Hawaii could receive ~6 billion if every high-net-worth household left 10 percent of its estate for charity. HCF’s legacy campaign Sakai says. “Hopefu tions to a place where they develop s of muscle memory in doing this activity so that, after t continue to have a strong legacy giving component in their fundraising.’ ,

JANUARY 2017 HAWAII BUSINESS 139

sensed he had a good heart. “My goodness, ;~cthir;~5:uE~

4~é$o~$’t9 It4ètJO.47’

Hawaii receives about 10 j,ercent of that sum since 1990, more than 700 nonprofits in the state have received a total of $315 million. Reuben Wong, 80, who served as a personal attorney to Weinberg and his Hawaii companies for 19 years, says this has ben efited the people of Hawaii greatly, espe cially now that many of the big companies — like Dillingham Corp. and Amfac, that used to donate to charity — don’t exist. His charky is visible in the 183 build ings named after Harry and Jeanette Weinberg in Hawaii. At least SQ percent of the foundation’s grants have to be capital grants — the rest can go toward programs and operating costs. When nonprofits re ceive capital grants valued at $250,000 or higher, they are required to name their buildings after the couple. Kalama says the foundation will then finance up to 30 percent of their projects, but the amount cannot exceed $3 million. To qualify for a grant from the founda tion, nonprofits must have been in opera tion for at least three years. They must also provide direct services to low-income and other vulnerable populations. The foundation’s focus on the poor and needy stems from Weinberg and his fam ily receiving aid when they were poor, Ka lama says. “One such situation was when they went to a hospital, the hospitalnever would charge theni for their services, so one of the things that Harry did was make a $2 million contributioñ.to that hospital in Baltimore:’ “Had’ it not been for the assistance they received from philanthropic groups, life would have been much more difficult. He never forgot that:’

~Ote Z~~I$4’jç’

•

HAWAII HAS A STRONG GIVING CULTURES Almost all hOuseholdS donated caOh, goods or tirrie in 2014, with nearly two-thirds giving

cash; according tothe Hawaii Community Foundation. “Ithink thaV~1just theculture of Hawaii and the spirit of aloha and bertainly the role models from the alii to the missionaries and on till today;” Says Curtis Sakai, th,e foundOtion’s VP of philanthropy and general counsel. “There’s a great engaged population that cares about each other and takes care of thecommunity. I think it’s in the DNA of Hawaii.” .

1 &e~fOd4f ED. TED .10

THIS MAP SHOWS FACILITIES ACROSS THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS FUNDED BY THE WEINBERG FOUNDATION SINCE 1990. A FEW ARE NO LONGER THERE. ALSO, SINCE FACILITIES ARE SOMETIMES LOCATED NEAR ONE ANOTHER, A SINGLE DOT MAY STAND FOR MORE THAN ONE FACILIT~J

. . I. I.

•

I’

S I

. • .1

. .._.f•

•

.~•

. .

[[IS

HARRVA OJEA ETTE

e’s :he SS I ks

EINBERGFOU DAT(ON

HAWAII OFFICE: 3660 Waialae Ave., Suite 400, Honolulu HI 96816 PHONE: 924 1000 CURRE T ASSETS $21 billion

AVERAGE AMOUNT OF GRANTS DISTRIBUTED EACH YEAR: $100 million HAWAII GRANTS AVERAGE: $10 million I on’s VP oft a! state investments and corn unity Slab’s

is ‘t e L36

JANUARY 2017

HAWAII BUSINESS 143