Statewide County HI Archives Biographies.....Dillingham, Walter Francis April 5, 1875 - ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/hi/hifiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: J. Orr jessicanorr@gmail.com June 2, 2011, 9:26 pm Source: The Story of Hawaii and Its Builders. Published by Honolulu Star Bulletin, Ltd., Territory of Hawaii, 1925 Author: Edited by George F. Nellist WALTER FRANCIS DILLINGHAM, Railroad President and Financier. Walter F. Dillingham, elder son of the railroad builder of Hawaii, B. F. Dillingham, and Mrs. Emma Louise (Smith) Dillingham, has, in the past 20 years, headed a number of the most important projects undertaken for the development of the Hawaiian Islands. While his chief business interest centers in the presidency of the Oahu Railway & Land Co., to which he succeeded in 1918 upon the death of his father, Mr. Dillingham has also been at the head of his contracting interests in the development of Honolulu, Hilo, Kahului, Ahukini and Kamelapau harbors, and the Pearl Harbor Naval Base. On many occasions he has represented Hawaii at Washington on missions of great importance, and has frequently been called to public service in the Territory. Born in Honolulu, April 5, 1875, Mr. Dillingham was educated at Punahou School and Harvard University. Home from college, he began his business life as a clerk in the offices of the Oahu Railway & Land Co., and in 1900 became manager of Dowsett & Co., Ltd., He organized and was the first manager and treasurer of the Hawaiian Dredging Co., Ltd., which has successfully handled practically every important contract for harbor improvement and land reclamation awarded in Hawaii during the past 20 years. Mr. Dillingham is now president of the company. In 1904, when not yet 30, Mr. Dillingham met the greatest test of his career, and in it found opportunity. In that year his father, whose enormous business affairs were at a most critical stage, suffered a breakdown, and Mr. Dillingham was called upon to assume the burden of carrying on as treasurer and financial director of the Oahu Railway & Land Co. and B. F. Dillingham & Co. A few years later the Dillingham enterprises had weathered the crisis, financial problems were solved, and fortune assured. In the years of stress, the younger Dillingham attained a close association with prominent Pacific Coast financiers which still endures and which has been of great value in the successful flotation of important Hawaiian enterprises. While the Hawaiian Dredging Co. was engaged on the contract for a channel through the reefs and into Pearl Harbor, a further contract for the great naval drydock was entered into in 1910. Construction difficulties arose which necessitated the re-designing of the whole drydock structure, and Mr. Dillingham, as president of the dredging company, spent two years in Washington negotiating with the Navy Department. As a result, a new and untried method was adopted for the completion of this important work, which was brought to a successful conclusion in 1919. Notable public service was rendered by Mr. Dillingham in 1921, when the governor was authorized by the legislature to send a commission to Washington to place before the President and Congress the serious situation which confronted the basic industries of Hawaii because of a labor shortage and an unbalanced racial condition. Mr. Dillingham was chosen chairman of the commission and while only agreeing to spend the time necessary for a presentation of the situation and a request for relief, he continued for two years in a campaign which placed before committees of Congress all phases of the financial, industrial, labor, racial and educational problems of the Territory. The benefits of the commission’s work to Hawaii have proved of great value. Since the days of the Republic of Hawaii, Mr. Dillingham has been drafted into public service in many emergencies. He was an agent of the Board of Health during the cholera epidemic, served again during the bubonic plague, was a sharpshooter and commander of mounted reserves during the Hawaiian Rebellion of 1895, and during the yellow fever epidemic was chairman of a committee of seven, representing civil, military and naval authorities, which had charge of the campaign for the eradication of mosquitoes. Always interested in politics as a supporter of the Republican party, Mr. Dillingham has declined to seek office, even when urged to become a candidate for delegate to Congress because of the constructive work he had done at Washington as a private citizen and commissioner. Mr. Dillingham is president of the Oahu Railway & Land Co., Ltd., Hawaiian Dredging Co., Ltd., Young Brothers, and Woodlawn Dairy and Stock Co.; vice- president, the Bishop Trust Co., Ltd., Honolulu Rapid Transit Co., Olaa Sugar Co., and Oahu Sugar Co.; director, American Factors, Ltd., Bank of Hawaii, Ltd., Puna Sugar Co., California Feed Co., and Waiahole Water Co., and is vice- president of the Aeronautic Society of America, a trustee of Oahu College, Mills College (California), and Palama Settlement Association, and is a former president of the Chamber of Commerce, University Club, Oahu Country Club and Hawaii Polo and Racing Association. Polo is Mr. Dillingham’s favorite recreation. He organized the Hawaii Polo and Racing Association, and has captained victorious Hawaiian polo teams in many matches of the mainland. He is regarded as one of the foremost polo captains in America. Mr. Dillingham married Miss Louise Olga Gaylord in Florence, Italy, May 2, 1910, and has four children, Lowell Smith, Benjamin Franklin, Henry Gaylord and Elizabeth Louise. He is a member of the Harvard Club, India House of New York, Bohemian Club of San Francisco and San Mateo Polo Club. During the World War he was in active service in the United States Army, Motor Transport Corps, stationed at Washington, D.C., with the rank of major. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/hi/statewide/bios/dillingh298bs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.poppet.org/hifiles/ File size: 6.3 Kb