[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 135 (Monday, September 29, 2003)]
[Senate]
[Pages S12134-S12136]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         ADDITIONAL STATEMENTS

                                 ______
                                 

                TRIBUTE TO ROBERT J. ``BOBBY'' PFEIFFER

 Mr. INOUYE. Mr. President, one of Hawaii's most widely 
respected business and community leaders has passed away. Robert J. 
``Bobby'' Pfeiffer was, as his friends described him, ``an old sea 
dog'' who rose from deck hand aboard tugs and steamers to become Chief 
Executive of one of Hawaii's most important companies, Alexander & 
Baldwin, Inc., and of its subsidiary, Matson Navigation Co., Inc.
  He was a man of vision who was always in touch with the concerns of 
all of the people of Hawaii. He often said, ``What is good for the 
community is good for business.''
  I would like to honor the late Mr. Pfeiffer by asking to have the 
following biography of Mr. Pfeiffer printed in the Record.
  The material follows:

     Robert J. ``Bobby'' Pfeiffer, March 7, 1920-September 26, 2003


Chairman Emeritus, Alexander & Baldwin, Inc.; Chairman Emeritus, Matson 
                        Navigation Company, Inc.

       ``Old sailors never die, they just drop the anchor,'' 
     Robert J. ``Bobby'' Pfeiffer said over a decade ago as he was 
     contemplating retirement. Pfeiffer, one of Hawaii's most 
     renowned sailors and captains of industry, dropped the anchor 
     on September 26, 2003, at age 83, at his home in Orinda, 
     Calif., after a lengthy illness
       During his 12\1/2\ years at the helm of Alexander & 
     Baldwin, Inc., Bobby Pfeiffer became practically synonymous 
     with business leadership in Hawaii. He charted a course of 
     modernization and diversification, and led A&B through one of 
     its strongest periods of growth and prosperity. At the same 
     time he earned a reputation for leadership--personal as well 
     as corporate--in support of charitable and other community 
     causes.
       Mr. Pfeiffer's maritime and business career spanned 58 
     years, nearly 38 of them with A&B and its ocean 
     transportation subsidiary, Matson Navigation Company, Inc. 
     During that nearly four-decade period, he served as A&B's 
     chief executive longer than all but two of his predecessors, 
     and he piloted Matson for 19 years, longer than any of that 
     company's chief executives since its founder, Captain William 
     Matson.
       For his significant contributions to the mid- and late-
     20th-century modernization of American shipping, Bobby 
     Pfeiffer was recognized with the transportation and maritime 
     industries' highest honors.

[[Page S12135]]

                              Early Years

       The descendent of an eight-generation line of sea captains, 
     Bobby Pfeiffer was born in Suva, Fiji, in 1920. He came to 
     Hawaii with his family the following year and spent his early 
     childhood in Hilo and Ka'u on the Big Island. It was there, 
     in a mostly Hawaiian community, that he learned to speak 
     Hawaiian--``otherwise you couldn't eat!'' he would later 
     explain--and ``developed an affection for the Hawaiian people 
     that [he] never lost.'' He even learned to dance the hula. 
     His affection for Hawaiian people deepened when, as a young 
     man, he worked on interisland steamers with Hawaiian 
     shipmates. He developed enormous respect for their seagoing 
     skills and ``friendly, compassionate, generous'' qualities.
       Mr. Pfeiffer moved to Honolulu in 1929 with his family, and 
     he was soon spending all his spare time at the waterfront, in 
     the holds and on the docks, helping unload freight, checking 
     cargo, riding forklifts without permission, and learning to 
     run equipment. By age 12 Bobby Pfeiffer was working summers 
     for Inter-Island Steam Navigation Company, Ltd. His first 
     assignment: deckhand on a harbor tug. Within three years he 
     earned an operator's license for vessels up to 75 feet long 
     and could legally skipper harbor tugs.
       He showed leadership qualities and initiative early. By the 
     eight grade, already captain of Roosevelt Intermediate 
     School's junior police squad, Bobby Pfeiffer was chosen 
     president of all junior police on Oahu. As he entered high 
     school, his ambition was to attend West Point and make the 
     Army his career. Knowing that McKinley High School had an 
     excellent ROTC program, he decided on his own to transfer 
     from Roosevelt, then one of Hawaii's elite ``English-
     standard'' schools. ``I attended McKinley for three weeks 
     before my parents found out,'' he remembered. He worked his 
     way up to cadet colonel of the ROTC Brigade and earned an 
     appointment to West Point. Shortly before graduation in 1937, 
     however, Bobby Pfeiffer's father lost his job, which prompted 
     the young man to abandon his plans for West Point.
       Instead, Bobby Pfeiffer went to work full-time for Inter-
     Island Steam Navigation, starting the day after graduation. 
     Being a sailor ``was a hard life,'' he said. ``Many times we 
     collapsed on mail sacks in the 'tween decks to snatch an hour 
     or two of sleep.'' His hard work was rewarded and he was soon 
     made an officer. By 1941 he was back ashore, serving as 
     terminal superintendent.
       During World War II, Mr. Pfeiffer served in the U.S. Navy. 
     At the end of the war, he married a fellow naval officer, 
     Mary Elizabeth worts, at Koloa Union Church on Kauai. While 
     he would remain in the Naval Reserve until 1965 (retiring 
     with the rank of commander), he soon returned to Inter-Island 
     Steam Navigation, where by 1950 he had risen to executive 
     vice president. Later that year a U.S. Department of Justice 
     order split the company in three; Bobby Pfeiffer was picked 
     to head one of the successor companies, Overseas Terminal, 
     Ltd. He remained with the company until 1955, when he moved 
     to Alhambra, Calif., to become vice president and general 
     manager of Pacific Cut Stone and Granite Co.

                                 Matson

       Mr. Pfeiffer began his long association with Matson in 
     1956, when he was named vice president and general manager of 
     Matcinal Corporation, a Matson stevedoring and terminal 
     subsidiary in Alameda, Calif. Except for the two years (1958-
     60) that he managed Pacific Far East Line's terminal and 
     cargo operations division in San Francisco, Bobby Pfeiffer 
     would spend the rest of his career with Matson and its 
     corporate parent, Alexander & Baldwin.
       Returning to Matson in 1960--as vice president and general 
     manager of Matson Terminals, Inc.--Bobby Pfeiffer promptly 
     earned a place in U.S. maritime annals by helping negotiate 
     the historic labor agreement that made possible the most 
     significant advance in shipping since steam replaced sail: 
     containerized cargo. Today the standard method of shipping, 
     containerized cargo was then in its infancy, having been 
     pioneered in the Pacific by Matson, beginning in 1958.
       The Pacific Maritime Association, the shippers' group, made 
     Bobby Pfeiffer chairman of its steering committee, charged 
     with negotiating the ground rules for containerized cargo 
     with the International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's 
     Union (ILWU), headed by Harry Bridges. Over ``months of 
     intense negotiations,'' that Bobby Pfeiffer would later call 
     ``labor-management statesmanship at its finest,'' the parties 
     created the Mechanization and Modernization (M and M) 
     Agreement. ``The union held a coast-wide caucus to consider 
     whether to resist [containerization] . . . or to bargain for 
     a `share of the machine.' '' Bobby Pfeiffer said. ``The 
     caucus opted to go after a share of the machine.'' The result 
     was a significant rise in longshore workers' wages and a new 
     lease on life for the U.S. merchant fleet.
       In 1962 Mr. Pfeiffer was named president of Matson 
     Terminals, the first step in an 11-year rise to the 
     presidency of parent Matson Navigation Company. He was made a 
     Matson vice president in 1966, in charge of the company's Far 
     East freight division. In 1970 Matson promoted him to senior 
     vice president for operations, and in 1971 to executive vice 
     president. In 1973 he was named Matson president and, at the 
     same time, senior vice president of its corporate parent, 
     A&B.
       During his nearly two decades at the helm, Bobby Pfeiffer 
     led Matson's transformation into one of the world's most 
     efficient ocean transportation companies, shaping and 
     directing a $400 million capital investment program that 
     modernized both the company's fleet and its terminals in 
     Hawaii and on the West Coast.

                                  A&B

       Noting Bobby Pfeiffer's successes at Matson, A&B promoted 
     him to executive vice president in 1977, appointed him to its 
     board of directors in 1978, and, in October 1979, named him 
     president and chief operating officer. Less than three months 
     later, in January 1980, A&B appointed him CEO. In October of 
     the same year, he was elected chairman of the board. After 25 
     years, the former deckhand had sailed home to Hawaii.
       Mr. Pfeiffer established a far-reaching legacy at A&B. He 
     developed a strategic plan that focused on completing the 
     technological renewal of Matson--which he continued to head 
     personally for some years--as well as on reinvigorating the 
     company's property development and management activities, and 
     revitalizing its roots in agriculture. He made the Hawaiian 
     word imua--``go forward''--his motto.
       To help realize the potential of A&B's extensive 
     landholding as a revenue generator--a full-fledged ``third 
     leg,'' alongside Matson and sugarcane--Bobby Pfeiffer began 
     diversifying the company's real estate assets, starting with 
     the sale of the Wailea Resort on Maui, which A&B had been 
     developing for nearly two decades. He reinvested the proceeds 
     in a new portfolio of income-producing commercial properties 
     on the U.S. mainland, which were managed not only for current 
     income, but also with an eye to appreciation and resale, so 
     as to keep the portfolio growing in value. He also expanded 
     the development and management activities of subsidiary A&B 
     Properties from Maui to Kauai. By 1985, profits from A&B's 
     real estate activities surpassed those from sugar.
       Mr. Pfeiffer also led the battle to keep A&B's sugar 
     business viable. He oversaw the completion and expansion of 
     investments in drip irrigation of the company's sugar 
     plantations on Maui and Kauai, and the pioneering automation 
     and computerization of its sugar mills. Together with his 
     success in bringing plantation operating costs under control, 
     these steps kept A&B's sugar business profitable when most 
     other plantations in Hawaii were failing. Bobby Pfeiffer also 
     diversified into coffee on a portion of the company's Kauai 
     lands. A&B's Kauai Coffee Company is now the largest coffee 
     grower in Hawaii.
       As a result of these efforts, under Bobby Pfeiffer's 
     leadership, A&B's annual revenue and total assets both nearly 
     tripled, while shareholder equity practically doubled.
       Enroute to these achievements, Bobby Pfeiffer saw his 
     leadership seriously challenged. In 1985 investor Harry 
     Weinberg, who had gradually purchased more than a quarter of 
     the company's stock and wished to boost its value by more 
     aggressively capitalizing on A&B's extensive landholdings, 
     attempted to replace Bobby Pfeiffer and the board with his 
     own slate of directors. After a hard-fought proxy battle, the 
     majority of stockholders voted with Mr. Pfeiffer; Weinberg 
     subsequently sold his shares back to the company.
       Bobby Pfeiffer kept his hand on the tiller at A&B for more 
     than a dozen years. After devising and testing a succession 
     plan--one of his proudest achievements--and acquiescing in 
     requests by the board that he remain at his posts, Bobby 
     Pfeiffer retired as president in 1991, as CEO in 1992, and, 
     finally, as chairman of the board and director in 1995. He 
     returned to all three posts--and also to the chairmanship of 
     Matson's board--in mid-1998, after his successor, John Couch, 
     had to take a medical leave of absence. Bobby Pfeiffer 
     retired again as president and CEO after three months and as 
     chairman of A&B and Matson a year later. After stepping down 
     as chairman in 1995, and again in 1999, the boards of both 
     A&B and Matson named him chairman emeritus, and he continued 
     attending their meetings regularly until his health began to 
     fail. He kept regular office hours at Matson headquarters in 
     San Francisco until shortly before his death.

                               Community

       Mr. Pfeiffer's legacy at A&B was not all business. He was 
     concerned with the well-being of the community as well. In a 
     landmark 1985 speech to the Chamber of Commerce of Hawaii, he 
     announced A&B's adoption of a policy of making charitable 
     contributions equal to two percent of pre-tax income, and 
     urged his listeners also ``to consider the two percent 
     solution.'' Bobby Pfeiffer explained that he viewed giving a 
     portion of profits ``back to the community where they are 
     earned, not so much as an obligation, but as an opportunity 
     to help shape the kind of community we would like to see.'' 
     In an editorial, Pacific Business News said, ``Pfeiffer's 
     `call to giving' boils down to what's good for the community 
     is good for business.'' In 1992 Bobby 
     Pfeiffer institutionalized what he called ``A&B's long 
     tradition of investing in the community's social fabric'' 
     by creating the Alexander & Baldwin Foundation.
       Bobby Pfeiffer did not merely lend his name, but worked 
     hard for many of the causes he supported. He played an 
     instrumental role in saving the Hawaii Theatre from the 
     wrecker's ball, lending much-needed credibility to the 
     efforts of the band of dedicated volunteers who wished to 
     restore

[[Page S12136]]

     it. He was generous with his own money too. In the late 
     1990's, according to columnist Bob Krauss, a member of the 
     board of the Hawaii Maritime Center, Bobby Pfeiffer made ``an 
     exceptionally generous personal gift'' to establish an 
     endowment for the Falls of Clyde, the world's last four-
     masted, full-rigged vessel, now permanently moored at the 
     foot of Bishop Street, alongside the Hawaii Maritime Center. 
     ``It was a noble deed that will help save her for the people 
     of Hawaii forever,'' said Krauss.
       Experiences early in life help explain Mr. Pfeiffer's 
     strong charitable instincts. ``Most of us at McKinley came 
     from poor families, so we learned to share,'' he recalled 
     half a century later. ``Some of my classmates lived in a 
     Japanese commune at the foot of Alapai Street at King, and I 
     visited them often. I always was struck by the fact that as 
     poor as they were, . . . there always was something to eat, 
     which was shared with visitors.'' Poverty was a condition 
     Bobby Pfeiffer knew well, but learned to deal with. He would 
     later tell how, as a schoolboy, he could get a good meal at 
     the Central YMCA for a nickel, the price of a plate of rice 
     and gravy, which he would wash down with ``tomato juice'' he 
     made by stirring ketchup into a glass of water. He also 
     recalled how, as a young sailor, he would sometimes sail to 
     the Hansen's disease colony at Kalaupapa on Molokai. At the 
     pier in Honolulu, ``fathers, mothers, children, husbands and 
     wives said good-bye forever. It was a heartrending situation, 
     and all of us on ship felt badly for days after.''
       Bobby Pfeiffer had a zest for life. He not only danced the 
     hula, but sang and played the ukulele. Four times a week he 
     would begin his day with a four-mile run, a habit he 
     continued into his eighth decade. In 1965 he learned to fly. 
     He earned certification as a flight instructor and developed 
     his skills to the point that he took up aerobatics and 
     purchased his own aerobatic plane. While he was president 
     of A&B, the company acquired two jets, Imua, a Cessna C-
     550 for interisland flights, and Manukapu (Treasured 
     Bird), a BAe 1000 for transoceanic and transcontinental 
     flights. Bobby Pfeiffer was certified to fly them both, 
     and whenever he was on the board, he was never to be found 
     in the cabin, but always in the cockpit--in the left seat, 
     as pilot in command.
       Mr. Pfeiffer freely admitted he ``thrived'' on work. He 
     began his day in the office at 5:15 a.m. and was renowed for 
     his puntuality at meetings. It was a trait he expected others 
     to share. A self-described hands on, people-oriented manager, 
     he made it a point to get to know employees personally. He 
     managed by walking around and was famous for greeting or 
     phoning employees on their birthdays.
       Bobby Pfeiffer had a deep affection for the ships and crews 
     of the Matson fleet. Even after this retirement and his move 
     back to California to be closer to his children, when a ship 
     concluded a voyage to the West Coast, he would telephone the 
     captain to see how the voyage went and how the captain and 
     crew were faring.

                                 Awards

       Bobby Pfeiffer earned many honors over the course of his 
     career. The most distinctive was the naming of a Matson ship 
     for him, the $129 million, 713-foot MV R.J. Pfeiffer--
     completed in 1992, the only commercial vessel built in a U.S. 
     shipyard since 1984. The name was an initiative of the Board 
     of directors--he had entered the meeting intending to 
     recommend another name for the new ship.
       Bobby Pfeiffer was also particularly proud to have been 
     honored with: The National Transportation Award (for which he 
     was selected by the U.S. Secretary of Defense on the 
     recommendation of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, putting him in 
     the company of such previous recipients as Juan Trippe of Pan 
     American, William M. Allen of Boeing, Donald W. Douglas of 
     Douglas Aircraft, and helicopter pioneer Igor Sikorsky), 
     1975; the Admiral of the Ocean Sea Award, by United Seamen's 
     Service, the maritime industry's highest honor, 1985; the 
     ``Connie'' Award of the Containerization & Intermodal 
     Institute (``for significant contributions to the 
     development and promotion of containerization and 
     intermodal transportation''), 1985; and the Charles Reed 
     Bishop Medal, by Bishop Museum (citing his ``leadership 
     and personal example'' in making A&B ``a leader in 
     corporate citizenship''), 1995. The Order of the 
     Splintered Paddle, Chamber of Commerce of Hawaii, 1996.
       Having no formal education beyond high school, Mr. Pfeiffer 
     also took great pride in his three honorary doctorates--from 
     the Maine Maritime Academy (Doctor of Science, 1986), the 
     University of Hawaii (Doctor of Humanities, 1986) and Hawaii 
     Loa College (Doctor of Humane Letters, 1987).
       Among Bobby Pfeiffer's many other honors: distinguished 
     Service Award, United States Coast Guard Foundation, 1995; 
     Bay Area Trade/Transportation Executive of the Year Award, 
     San Francisco Daily commercial News, 1978; Person of the Year 
     Award, Transportation Clubs International, 1986; 
     Distinguished Citizen Award, Gannett Foundation, 1986; Junior 
     Achievement Hawaii Business Hall of Fame laureate, 1998; 
     Historic Hawaii Foundation Kama'aina of the Year Award, 1990; 
     Distinguished Citizen of the Year Award, Aloha Council, Boy 
     Scouts of America, 1986; Sales & Marketing Executives (SME) 
     of Honolulu Salesperson of the Year, 1989; Brass Hat Award, 
     Propeller Club of the United States, Port of the Golden Gate, 
     1973; Ship-in-the-Bottle Award, International Organization of 
     Masters, Mates & Pilots, 1981; and McKinley High School Hall 
     of Honor (he was among the inaugural 38 members inducted), 
     1986.
       Bobby Pfeiffer was a life member of National Defense 
     Transportation Association Among the many professional, civic 
     and charitable organizations he served in a leadership role 
     were A Committee on Excellence, State of Hawaii (chairman); 
     American Bureau of Shipping (member, Board of Managers); 
     Bishop Museum (member, board of trustees); Chamber of 
     Commerce of Hawaii (member, board of directors); 
     Containerization & Intermodal Institute (member, Honorary 
     Board of Advisors); Hawaii Business Roundtable (vice 
     chairman); Hawaii Community Foundation (member, board of 
     governors); Hawaii Maritime Center (vice chairman); Hawaiian 
     Sugar Planters' Association (chairman); Institute for Human 
     Services (member, board of directors); Joint Maritime 
     Congress (Advisory Committee member); Marine Exchange of the 
     San Francisco Bay Region (director); Maritime Transportation 
     Research Board of the National Academy of Sciences 
     (chairman); McKinley High School Foundation (honorary co-
     chairman); National Association of Stevedores (president); 
     National Cargo Bureau, Inc. (chairman of Pacific Coast 
     Committee); National Tropical Botanical Garden (trustee); 
     Propeller Club of the United States, Port of Honolulu 
     (president) and Port of San Francisco (Board of Governors); 
     Reserve Officers of the Naval Service (president, Honolulu 
     Chapter); The Conference Board (senior member); School of 
     Travel Industry Management, University of Hawaii (member, 
     advisory board); University of Hawaii Foundation (chairman, 
     board of trustees); U.S. National Committee of the 
     International Cargo Handling Association, Inc. (chairman). He 
     served as a director of at least two dozen other companies, 
     and he was a member of the prestigious Bohemian and The 
     Pacific-Union clubs in San Francisco and of the Oahu Country 
     Club and The Pacific Club in Honolulu. Bobby Pfeiffer was 
     also a life member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars.
       Mr. Pfeiffer is survived by his children, Elizabeth 
     ``Betsy'' Tumbas and her husband Stephen; Margaret ``Marga'' 
     Hughes and her husband William; George W. ``Skipper'' 
     Pfeiffer and his wife Julie; Kathleen ``Kappy'' Pfeiffer; and 
     nine grandchildren. His wife, Mary Worts Pfeiffer, died on 
     December 4, 2002, five days after the couple's 57th wedding 
     anniversary.
       Services are pending. In lieu of flowers, the family 
     suggests that donations in Pfeiffer's memory be made to the 
     Hawaii Maritime Center or to one's favorite charity.

                          ____________________