[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
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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.
____________________