Waterman Gary “Gabby” Haui Makalena, a retired civil servant and longtime Waikiki beachboy, died Jan. 27 surrounded by family at his Waipahu residence.

Born May 14, 1932, in Nuuanu, he was 89.

“Dad embraced everybody he came into contact with, and they just loved him,” said his daughter Dona Uilani Makalena.

Since childhood he was a regular at Waikiki Beach where, as a paddler for Hui Nalu Canoe Club, he met his future wife, fellow paddler Elizabeth Ching, and the couple raised their children amidst an extended beachboy ohana.

For Dona Makalena and her siblings, “the beach was our backyard,” she said. “Our parents taught us to swim, surf and share Waikiki and its traditions. We were always a part of it, always there.”

“Gabby was one of the nicest, kindest guys I’ve known,” said Didi Robello, owner of Aloha Beach Serv­ices, founded in 1959 by his father, Harry S. Robello, “the last of the original Waikiki beachboys, those who worked directly with Duke Kahanamoku and Steamboat (Sam Mokuahi).”

Makalena was “always very polite, never heard him cuss — a really good, very classy person and a good surfer, one of the guys who would be riding at first break when the waves get really big, out at the second reef.”

Starting in the 1980s, Makalena and his daughter Dori Pihanui “Pinoi” Maka­lena surfed in longboard competitions in California and Hawaii, where in 2004 Pinoi Makalena won the Converse Hawaiian Open, held at Queen’s Surf, Waikiki, offshore from the beachboy stands where her father worked.

A son of Solomon Kalua and Lucy Kauhane Maka­lena, Gabby Makalena was hanai’d by his father’s sister, Alice Spencer, his daughters said. After graduating in 1950 from Kamehameha Schools, he served in the Army for a year and a half, then worked as a supply clerk at Hickam Air Force Base until he retired in 1990.

Although it was only then that he began his beachboy career, working alongside his brother Harry Makalena, the beachboys always considered Gabby Makalena to be one of them, Robello said.

“Gabby’s one of the ones the beachboys would recognize,” he said. “He grew up on the beach, and he was always around. The whole Makalena clan was our family friends; they’ve been on the beach since 1954.”

One of 12 siblings, Maka­lena loved to get the whole clan together, singing and playing music and “making sure we knew who people were, what they meant to us,” Dona Makalena said.

Her father, she added, was in demand on the beach as a skilled teacher with a warm, caring nature who “made sure children wouldn’t become afraid of the water and that they respected the water and everything around them.”

Makalena liked to invite clients for pau hana at Duke’s restaurant in the Outrigger Waikiki Beach Resort, and his daughters were thrilled when singer Michael McDonald reciprocated by giving the family tickets and backstage passes to his Hawaii Theatre concert, although they first had to explain to their father who the Doobie Brothers were.

In addition, he was an avid bowler and a golfer: His brother Ted Makalena was the first Hawaiian golfer to win the Hawaiian Open, in 1964.

“Dad also walked out the wrestlers at the Civic Auditorium back in the day,” she said, “and he loved going to Las Vegas and playing craps and keno. He would always be reading up on the strategies of the game.”

Although he required 24-hour care toward the end of his life, Makalena continued to enjoy visits with family.

His favorite outings were getting lunch at Fumi’s shrimp truck in Kahuku with his granddaughters and “at least seeing the water, the beach, at Waikiki,” Pinoi Makalena said.

In addition to daughters Dona and Pinoi, Makalena is survived by daughter Moana Haae; hanai brother Richard “Dickie” Makalena; hanai sisters Vivian Ahmad and Velma Fish; granddaughters Nicole, Kelsey Niau and Elizabeth Ashley Freitas; and hanai grandson Lee James Hao.

He was predeceased by wife Elizabeth and son Gary “Haui” Makalena, sister Lucille Takahashi and brothers Solomon, David, Harry, Dad, Gabriel, Ted and Manny Makalena.

“We’re really gonna miss Gabby,” Robello said. “Now he’s out surfing with the rest of ’em.”

Waikiki beachboy serv­ices for Makalena will be held at 8 a.m. April 3, after gathering at Aloha Beach Services in front of the Moana Surfrider Resort.