Blaisdell showed leadership on and off athletic field

The first Hawaii-born athlete to pitch for the Baltimore Orioles was nicknamed "Rusty." He was one of the finest all-around Hawaii athletes in the early part of the 1920s. In his freshman year at the University of Hawaii, he quarterbacked Otto "Proc" Klum’s Fighting Deans.

He played basketball and was a good enough southpaw pitcher to earn a job with the 1926 Baltimore Orioles. Oh, and he was elected mayor of Honolulu five times.

He was Neal Shaw Blaisdell. The last of seven children, Blaisdell was born in 1902, the son of an Irish fireman. His mother was part Hawaiian, the granddaughter of John Adams Cummins, the minister of foreign affairs under King Kalakaua.

His grandmother Mrs. William Wallace Blaisdell operated the Blaisdell Hotel on Fort Street from 1910 until 1913. Neal earned 25 cents a week scrubbing hallways, running errands and doing chores at the hotel when he was 10 years old.

Blaisdell attended Kamehameha and Saint Louis, and lettered in football, baseball and basketball. He graduated in 1921 and went on to the University of Hawaii and Bucknell College, before spending a season pitching for the Baltimore Orioles.

He came home to Hawaii and became a football and basketball coach at McKinley from 1927-31, then at Roosevelt, Punahou and Saint Louis from 1943-49. At the same time, Blaisdell worked for Bishop Trust and Hawaiian Pineapple, where he was both personnel and recreation director.

He was elected to the Territorial Legislature in 1944 and 1946 as an independent Republican, but tuberculosis landed him in Leahi Hospital for seven months.

"In the hospital I had a lot of time to think," Blaisdell recalled. "I felt I could contribute something to the city. It was nothing great or dramatic, just a feeling that there was room for a person of my training in the business world and my familiarity with local needs."

He lost his first race for mayor in 1952 but won two-year terms in 1954, 1956 and 1958 and four-year terms in 1960 and 1964. During that time he guided the City and County of Honolulu from a small city of 350,000 to a major metropolis of more than 650,000.

Realtor Rick Ornellas recalls caddying for Blaisdell several times at Oahu Country Club in 1962. "Blaisdell was a gentleman," Ornellas says. "He had a sweet disposition and wasn’t arrogant at all. I loved that guy."

"On one occasion he gave me a 50-cent tip and said, ‘Here, kid. Buy yourself a cigar.’ He was joking with me. I was just 14 at the time." Ornellas would get $2.50 (about $16 in today’s dollars) to carry two golf bags for 18 holes, so 50 cents was good money.

In 1965 Blaisdell began the process that eventually resulted in the construction of Aloha Stadium. He was also the driving force that led to the building of the Honolulu International Center, now named Neal S. Blaisdell Center. Blaisdell retired in 1968 and died in 1975.

"Honolulu will forever be in his debt," Gov. William Quinn said, "for the leadership he gave her as statehood and the jet age gave rise to incredible growth and change."

Bob Sigall, author of the “Companies We Keep” books, looks through his collection of old photos to tell stories each Friday of Hawaii people, places and companies. Email him at Sigall@yahoo.com.