Retired sugar industry executive and former Office of Hawaiian Affairs trustee Donald Bruce Cataluna has died at the age of 77, leaving a legacy of service beyond the plantation.
Born in Koloa, Kauai, Cataluna worked almost every job on the sugar plantation, from taking care of the pack mules to managing some of the largest plantations in the islands. He spent his career with C. Brewer & Co., becoming one of the industry’s first part-Hawaiian plantation managers.
"You know how they say plantation managers live on snob hill? He was anything but a snob. He never forgot the working man," said state Sen. Clayton Hee (D, Heeia-Laie-Waialua), who served with Cataluna on the OHA board. "He was a straight-up honest guy. If he disagreed with you, you understood why. I was privileged to have served with him."
His daughter Lee Cataluna, teacher, playwright and former Honolulu Star-Advertiser columnist, said her father achieved a lot but still managed to show his generosity.
"He always looked beyond the plantation for how he could help the community," she said.
Cataluna’s mother, Mabel Vidinha Cataluna, was half-Hawaiian, while his father, Francisco "Chico" Cataluna, was born in Lisbon, Portugal. He grew up on Wailaau Road, swimming in Waita Reservoir, riding his horses, picking pineapple during the summers and walking barefoot to Koloa School.
AFTER graduating from Kauai High School in 1955, Cataluna attended the University of Hawaii at Manoa. He graduated in 1960 and was recruited for a management training program through the Hawaiian Sugar Planters’ Association. His first assignment was at Pepeekeo Sugar Co. on Hawaii island.
Cataluna worked at plantations all over the islands, including Wailuku Sugar on Maui and Hutchinson Sugar in Naalehu and Ka‘u Agribusiness on Hawaii island. In 1976 he met his goal to "make manager by age 40" when he was assigned to transform former sugar lands into guava fields and prawn ponds at Kilauea Agronomics on Kauai.
From there C. Brewer sent him back to Wailuku Sugar, where he served as vice president and manager from 1979 to 1987. He served on the Maui County Police Commission and belonged to a number of community and business organizations.
During those years, Cataluna and his family lived in the "big white house on the hill," the manager’s house in Wailuku, which fulfilled his childhood dream of attaining that symbol of success, his daughter said.
From 1987 to 1990, Cataluna managed Olokele Sugar on the west side of Kauai, and from 1990 until his retirement in 1993, he served as CEO and president of Hilo Coast Processing and Mauna Kea Agribusiness on the Big Island.
After his retirement, Cataluna returned to his hometown of Koloa and began a second career as a project manager and grant administrator for Kauai County. He taught business, economics and management classes at Kauai Community College for several years. He also was a member of the Kauai Police Commission.
In 2000 Gov. Ben Cayetano appointed him interim OHA trustee for Kauai and Niihau, where he focused on improving educational opportunities for Native Hawaiians. He was elected in 2000, 2004 and 2008 and served until his retirement in 2012.
He died Saturday at Wilcox Memorial Hospital on Kauai.
He is survived by wife Dorothy; daughter Lee and her husband, Jim Kelly; daughter Malia Blake and her husband, Kawika; and grandchildren Kainoa Kelly, Makalapua Blake and Dallas Blake.
Services are private.
