William Bains-Jordan, who was the first state representative of Aiea, died Feb. 4 at his home in Madison, Ala. He was 104.

“He died peacefully,” his daughter Patricia Bains- Jordan told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser.

The Legislature plans to lower Capitol flags to half-staff to honor a humble man — known as Billy, BJ or Billy Bains — who dedicated his life to making Hawaii better, his family said. Patricia Bains-Jordan, of Pokai Bay, said that her father was chairman of the 49th State Fair and then served as a Republican in the House from 1959 to 1962.

During his four years at the Legislature, Billy Bains-Jordan chaired a committee to design the five-story, concrete Capitol building. He served in other positions, including director of the Kailua Chamber of Commerce and president of the Kalihi and Kapahulu Businessmen’s Association.

But Billy Bains-Jordan didn’t start in politics — he was a butcher at Piggly Wiggly.

He looked for a white-collar job before he asked permission to marry his future wife, Marjorie. He said he wanted to marry her “not as a butcher,” his daughter said.

Using that as motivation, he got a job at Bank of Hawaii in 1937, where he started as an “office boy,” earning less income than what he made as a butcher. It took Bains-Jordan four years to make enough money to marry Marjorie, according to his daughter.

He worked his way up from “office boy” to vice president and opened multiple branch locations.

During the 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, he was a teller when he witnessed a flood of customers coming into Bank of Hawaii because of wartime cash limits.

“I can remember being a receiving teller in the Main Office at the outbreak of the war,” he said in a 1977 Bank of Hawaii magazine story. “The military governor said that no person or business could have more than $200 in their possession, so money poured into the bank. We got it in such quantities all we could do was count it and throw it aside into wastebaskets and receptacles in the our wire-mesh teller cages.”

He retired after 45 years of work.

His family remembered him for having a quick sense of humor, citing a 1979 Honolulu Star-Bulletin article that said, “When a little mongrel dog wandered into the Kailua branch of Bank of Hawaii, VP Bill Bains-Jordan quipped to a customer, ‘I hope he didn’t come to make a deposit.’”

Bains-Jordan achieved perfect attendance for over 55 years at the Hawaii Rotary Club, where he served as secretary, treasurer and president.

“He never missed one of the weekly meetings,” Patricia Bains- Jordan said.

He was born in Hilo on Dec. 12, 1916, and his footprints literally trace back to the Volcano House on Hawaii island where he and his parents visited and documented his footprint on paper as the youngest visitor at just 15 days old. He was presented that footprint years later.

Billy Bains-Jordan then spent most of his life on Oahu.

In 1935 he graduated from Roo­sevelt High School, and attended Cannon School of Business and the University of Hawaii.

in 1937 he went to the first Boy Scout National Jamboree in Washington, D.C., representing Boy Scout Troop 10 as a junior leader, according to his family. He became an Eagle Scout, chaired the Boy Scouts Makahiki, became Scout leader and was the district committeeman for two years.

His family said he was an avid deep-sea fisherman in Hawaii and Guam. He furthered his hobby in New Zealand, Mexico, Canada and Alaska. His love for fishing continued until he was nearly 102 years old.

Patricia Bains-Jordan described her father as humble but never quiet.

“He’s outgoing and full of personality and life,” she said. “He had more friends than you can even imagine. Everybody loved my dad.

“It just blows my mind that he never talked about himself, so I wasn’t aware of his early accomplishments until I researched after his passing,” she said.

He is survived by Patricia and his wife, Marjorie Helen Bains- Jordan of Madison, Ala.; children John Bains-Jordan of Anchorage, Alaska, and Kathy Davenport of Madison, Ala.; five grandchildren; and eight great grandchildren.

Services are pending.