[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 59 (Thursday, March 30, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Page S4919]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            MORNING BUSINESS

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   IN HONOR OF ROBERT J. PFEIFFER, RETIRING CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD OF 
                       ALEXANDER & BALDWIN, INC.

  Mr. AKAKA. Mr. President, it is a privilege for me to rise today to 
honor, congratulate, and extend my very best wishes and aloha to a 
dear, and very close friend to me and my family, Mr. Robert J. 
``Bobby'' Pfeiffer, on his retirement as Chairman of the Board of 
Alexander & Baldwin, Inc.
  His life represents a true American success story, a self-made man 
who started as a deck hand, rose to president of Hawaii's largest 
navigation company, and later made it to the board room of one of 
Hawaii's largest corporations. Bobby Pfeiffer will conclude 57 years of 
exemplary service on March 31, when he resigns as chairman of Alexander 
& Baldwin, Inc. (A&B), a Fortune 500 company. Mr. Pfeiffer has a long 
and distinguished record of contributions to his company, and because 
of the leadership he has provided, he has been unanimously elected to 
the post of chairman emeritus. Mr. Pfeiffer has enjoyed a 37-and-a-half 
year career with A&B, including longer service as CEO than any other 
individual in the company's 124 year history except John Waterhouse, 
son-in-law of A&B founder Samuel T. Alexander.
  Mr. Pfeiffer, who stepped down as A&B's chief executive officer on 
March 31, 1992, indicated that because he wanted his retirement to be 
complete, he also wished to leave his current positions as director and 
chairman of the board of both of A&B's principal subsidiaries, A&B-
Hawaii, Inc. and Matson Navigation Company, Inc. the A&B-Hawaii and 
Matson directors, at their January meetings, unanimously elected him 
chairman emeritus of those boards as well. Mr. Pfeiffer was Matson CEO 
longer than anyone except Captain William Matson, who founded the 
company 112 years ago.
  Born in Fiji in 1920, Pfeiffer came to Hawaii the following year. He 
graduated from McKinley High School in 1937 and went to work as a 
deckhand for the Inter-Island Steam Navigation Company, Ltd., of which 
he later became president. He served as an officer in the U.S. navy 
during World War II.
  Mr. Pfeiffer's career with Alexander and Baldwin began in 1956. He 
worked for Matcinal Corporation, a Matson subsidiary and a stevedoring 
and terminal company in the San Francisco Bay area, as vice president 
and general manager. In 1962 he was promoted to president of Matson 
Terminals, Inc., another Matson subsidiary. He was appointed Matson 
president and CEO in 1973; he has served as Matson's chairman 
continuously since 1979. At Matson, he guided the company through a 
period of tremendous growth and success and in the process transformed 
it into one of the world's most efficient, modern ocean transportation 
companies.
  Mr. Pfeiffer was named to A&B's board of directors in 1978; he was 
appointed president of A&B the next year. He assumed the posts of chief 
executive officer and chairman of the board in 1980. Under his 
leadership, A&B has grown, modernized, and diversified. Mr. Pfeiffer 
also earned the company a solid reputation for involvement in 
philanthropic activities and community affairs, both in Hawaii and 
California, its two principal places of business. Today, the Alexander 
and Baldwin Foundation, which he created, has established a level of 
giving in excess of $1 million a year.
  Mr. Pfeiffer has served on many corporate, professional and non-
profit boards and organizations, often in leadership positions. These 
include First Hawaiian, Inc.; First Hawaiian Bank; the Conference 
Board; the Hawaii Business Roundtable; the Chamber of Commerce of 
Hawaii; the American Bureau of Shipping; the Maritime Transportation 
Research Board of the National Academy of Sciences (as chairman); the 
Containerization & Intermodal Institute; the International Cargo 
Handling Coordination Association (as chairman); the Propeller Club of 
the United States, Port of Honolulu (as president) and Port of San 
Francisco; the National Association of Stevedores (as president); the 
National Cargo Bureau, Inc.; the Hawaii Maritime Center; the McKinley 
High School Foundation; the University of Hawaii Foundation (as 
chairman); the Aloha Council, Boy Scouts of America; the Girl Scout 
Council of the Pacific; the Pacific Aerospace Museum; and the Research 
Round Table of the American Heart Association, Alameda County Chapter.
  Mr. Pfeiffer's community and professional leadership earned him 
numerous honors. The latest was on January 25th when he received the 
Charles Reed Bishop Medal from Honolulu's Bishop Museum, which cited 
his ``leadership and personal example'' in making A&B ``a leader in 
corporate citizenship *** through its exemplary support of community 
organizations ***'' In 1986 the Aloha Council of the Boy Scouts of 
America honored him with its Distinguished Citizen of the Year Award. 
In 1985 the United Seamen's Service gave him its Admiral of the Ocean 
Sea award in New York. Mr. Pfeiffer has been granted honorary 
doctorates by the Marine Maritime Academy, the University of Hawaii, 
and Hawaii Loa College.
  Mr. Pfeiffer's professionalism, corporate citizenship, and commitment 
to the highest standards throughout his career have inspired many. I 
ask my colleagues to join my wife Millie and me in wishing Bobby 
Pfeiffer the very best, God's blessing on his retirement, and mahalo 
for a job well done.


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