A pioneer in the advertising business in Hawaii has died.
Raymond Biagio Milici, who influenced visitor industry advertising and helped to build Milici Valenti into one of Hawaii’s largest advertising agencies in the 1970s and 1980s, died Sept. 20 at a retirement home in Seattle. He was 93.
"His agency set worldwide standards for the industry," said Barbara Tanabe, an advertising executive with Ho‘akea Communications and a former television journalist.
"He was the perfect gentleman and just truly loved Hawaii.
"He created a mood and … the sense of Hawaii that resonates today," Tanabe said.
Ray Milici was born on Aug. 7, 1919, in Brooklyn, N.Y., attended Lafayette College in Pennsylvania and served as a captain in the Marine Corps before settling in Hawaii and beginning his advertising business in 1946, friends said.
"He was very good at making friends and connections," recalled Nicholas Ng Pack, chairman of the business that now bears the name Milici Valenti Ng Pack.
Ng Pack said that on his first day on the job as an assistant account executive in 1980, he met Milici, who was in aloha attire and at work at 7 a.m.
Ng Pack said the firm’s list of clients included First Hawaiian Bank, HMSA, General Foods, General Motors and the Hawaii Visitors Bureau.
Milici also was involved in nonprofit organizations, serving on the board of Big Brothers of Hawaii, Goodwill Industries, the Rotary Club of Honolulu, the Hawaii Hotel Association and the Hawaii Visitors Bureau.
KGMB-TV sportscaster Jack Valenti began working for Milici’s firm in 1957.
Milici is survived by son Gary, daughters Kari Madera and Tooni Milici, and many other family members and friends.
