Coldwell Banker Pacific Properties agent Stewart Wade turned 99 Saturday and celebrated with his wife, Cecilia Christenson-Wade, over dinner at the Pacific Club "where I’ve been a member for many years," he said Friday.
He couldn’t stay on the phone long, he said during an interview, because he was heading out to renew his driver’s license, he said.
Stewart and Cecilia had just returned from a two-week mainland trip during which he was honored at the National Association of Realtors Conference and Expo in San Francisco. "He just won an award for creating the largest CRS (Certified Residential Specialists) chapter, that he started here many years ago," she said.
He was a founding member and first president of the Aloha chapter of CRS in November 1979 and was named the first emeritus member of the chapter in March. He also has been named Realtor of the Year by the Honolulu Board of Realtors and the Hawaii Association of Realtors, and has served numerous community and civic organizations through the real estate career he started in 1968.
He has consistently been a multimillion-dollar producer, according to Coldwell Banker Pacific Properties.
After his stint in the military, he started Orchard Nursery in Walnut Creek, Calif., and then came to Hawaii to sell animal feed for Purina, visiting farms on all islands to assess needs and establish warehousing and distribution space.
"When Purina wanted him to go back to St. Louis, he respectfully declined" because he wanted to stay here, Cecilia said.
Stewart’s wife of 63 years died in 2005, and he and Cecilia have been married for seven years after a friendship that dates back to the 1960s, Cecilia said.
Wade has beaten the longevity of previous family members, including his grandmother and younger brother, who both died at age 74, he said.
While he believes "we’re all living longer than we did because of new medicines … I think your attitude makes such a big difference," he said. "You live longer by not worrying about everything."
Wade survived pancreatitis and has a pacemaker, and swims in the ocean three to four times a week.
One wonders what a 99-year-old Waimanalo resident wants for his birthday. "Peace and quiet," he laughed.
"He’s sharp as a tack," Cecilia said.
Hawaiian Jellys exploding
Waikoloa-based Hawaiian Jellys LLC in on track to make $379 million this year, after making $53 million its first year.
The colorful slippers bearing Hawaii- and fruit-color names are on the verge of becoming available at more retail locations around Hawaii including Don Quijote in December and in Walgreens stores beginning in January. The nation’s 8,300 Walgreens stores also will offer the orthotic-focused slippers as a seasonal item, said Gerstenberger. Hawaii Sears stores also are a proving ground for possible retail rollout at mainland stores.
The upcoming January issue of Delta Airlines’ shopping-oriented SkyMall magazine will feature Hawaiian Jellys on the cover.
The slippers have been available for a while at the Flip Flop Shop in Waikiki and will be sold at two new Flip Flop Shops in the planning stage. They also have been available through Amazon.com; the Hawaiian Jellys website, which also offers swimwear, hats and other apparel; and since July in the company’s retail store at Parker Ranch Center in Waimea.
The slippers retail for $39.95, while new children’s footwear yet to hit the market will retail for between $20 and $24, he said.
The new children’s footwear has a magnet in the top, to which collectible and "squishy" Hawaiian Jelly Bugs will adhere. The bugs are about 3 inches long and a couple of inches wide, Gerstenberger said, and stick with ceramic magnets "with a half-life of about 100 years," he said.
The slippers are made in Xiamen, China, in a factory Gerstenberger has seen and describes as new, clean, with heating and air conditioning and which is mostly automated. Conditions for workers are nothing like the horror stories heard from elsewhere around the world, he said. Nike and New Balance shoes also are made at the factory.
"Ninety-seven percent of all the world’s shoes are made in China," he said, where workers stamp them "Made in Italy" or "Made in Spain," he said.
Conversely, Chinese shoppers "go crazy" for shoes made in America, so Gerstenberger is exploring construction of a manufacturing facility that might employ 600 to 800 local people, he said.
On the Net: » www.hawaiianjellys.com
Reach Erika Engle at 529-4303, erika@staradvertiser.com or on Twitter as @erikaengle.
CORRECTION
November 22, 2013
Waikoloa-based footwear maker Hawaiian Jellys LLC said it expects to make $53 million in sales in the fiscal year ending in June 2014 and an estimated $379 million the following year.
|
