Keiji Amemiya, who worked in Hawaii’s pineapple industry for more than four decades and helped develop ways to dramatically improve production, died Aug. 20 in Mililani. He was 88.
Beginning as a 16-year-old laborer for Hawaiian Pineapple Co. — the predecessor to Dole — in 1941, Amemiya worked at Dole Wahiawa until his retirement from a supervisory position in 1987.
Amemiya’s younger brother, Ron, a former state attorney general, said that during the 1960s Keiji Amemiya was a member of a team tasked with finding ways to step up production at Dole Wahiawa. The team created employee incentive programs that increased operational productivity by more than 50 percent and helped keep Dole Wahiawa from closing.
Following his retirement, Amemiya started a consulting business that developed harvesting incentive programs for macadamia nut growers.
A 52-year member of the Lions Club, Amemiya served as president of the Wahiawa and Mililani clubs. He was a founding member of the Mililani Lions Club.
Amemiya also served as president of the Helemano Elementary and Leilehua High School parent-teacher associations, and was the first president of the Mililani Town Association.
Keiji Amemiya is survived by his wife, Setsuko "Vivian" of Mililani; five children: Debbie Luning of Honolulu, Chris Amemiya of Seattle, and Corinne Watanabe, Jan Iwase and Roy Amemiya, all of Mililani; 15 grandchildren; 16 great-grandchildren; brothers Ron of Kaneohe and Clayton of Hilo; and sisters Grace Sakai of the San Diego area, Kuniko Kay Griffith of Boston, Hoshiko Miike of San Francisco and Brenda Henry of Arlington, Va.
Services will be held at Mililani Mortuary-Waipio, mauka chapel, on Wednesday, with visitation at 5:15 and services at 6:15 p.m.
