"Be True to Your School" is more than a song to University of Hawaii alumnus Jay Shidler. It’s a personal mantra, and a rallying cry to likeminded alumni to support what the business mogul considers Hawaii’s most important institution — even if they can’t commit anything close to the $100 million that he has.

Shidler’s long-term gift, a mix of cash, stocks and bonds and income generated from land underlying office buildings in several major mainland cities, will benefit his namesake Shidler College of Business at UH-Manoa, primarily through faculty endowments to attract and retain world-class professors and scholarships for worthy business students.

It is the largest gift ever by a single donor to any UH institution, from a man who traces his first real-estate deal to his days as a UH business student; he graduated in 1968. The former Army brat’s peripatetic upbringing made Hawaii his first true home.

"By the time I was a sophomore or junior at UH, I had lived here longer than any place I had ever lived. It was not only my school, it was my home," recalls Shidler, who oversees a global enterprise from downtown Honolulu.

As founder of The Shidler Group, he has acquired and owned more than 2,000 commercial properties in 40 states and Canada. He also has founded more than 20 companies, five of which have been listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

He and his wife, Wallette, a Kamehameha Schools alumna, have a grown daughter and two grandchildren. The family has always placed a high value on education as a way to advance individuals’ lives and the well-being of the whole community.

Although the total size of the UH gift, built on earlier donations, has made headlines, Shidler emphasizes that Hawaii’s public university relies on charitable donations of all sizes. He hopes more alumni will step up.

"It is my opinion that the University of Hawaii is our most important institution — that it has contributed and will contribute the most to increasing the quality of life and enhancing our standard of living."

QUESTION: When you made the first donation in 2006, you said you hoped that it would help the UH business school become one of the best in the nation. Can you talk about about how you think your donation has done that?

ANSWER: The first thing that we wanted to do — and really the dean of the business school, Dean (Vance) Roley is the driver — is we wanted to improve the facilities. And so we got a lot of bang for the buck in what we were able to do to bring the classrooms up to par and bring the grounds up to par and the landscaping and so forth. … That’s what people see when they go there. What they don’t see when you walk around is the increased quality in the faculty we’ve been able to attract from all over the world. …  That corresponds with two things: an increase in the reputation of the school in specific areas and a faculty endowment.

Q: So you put money specifically toward the endowment?

A: Right. That is a way to be able to pay faculty competitive rates, or at least the rates of (the schools) we are competing with. Specifically, the focus of (the increased) gift is two-fold. One, we increased the faculty endowment: That gets you better faculty. And we increased the number of scholarships for students. That either attracts better students or students who are worthy but couldn’t come if they didn’t have a scholarship.

Q: And it’s working?

A: Yes. … Look at international business. UH ranks among the very best programs in the country. … Last year we were tied at 18th with Dartmouth, with Tuck (School of Business), for international business. … That’s pretty spectacular, to me, to be 18th in the nation, and some very fancy schools are 19th, 20th and 22nd. And so you take your long suit and use it to drive donations, recognition and all the things that come from better faculty, better students, better ratings, better facilities: It becomes a virtuous spiral, upward. … It manifests itself, in my observation, in an increased pride among specific alumni of the business school.

Q: So you hope that your donation inspires other people to step up, even if they can’t afford $100 million?

A: Yes. And it has. … Every university wants their alumni to contribute in whatever way they can. We’ve seen increased donations as a function of a lead gift. Some people talk about the psychology of permissioning. Many folks, even 20 years ago, didn’t even know that you could give a charitable donation to a public university. They didn’t know how to do it. Private universities have been doing this for 300 years. Public universities have been doing this for about 30 years. So public universities and their foundations have gotten better and they have observed that if somebody gives a gift, it gives permission for other people to give gifts. That’s been our direct experience. 

Q: How do you reach potential donors?

A: Ultimately it comes down to making a personal connection, sometimes with the descendants of an alumni who has died. In Hawaii, if granddad or grandmom went to college, they probably went to UH. Their sons maybe went to medical school on the mainland, their grandsons and granddaughters maybe are going to law school all over. But it all started because somebody’s grandad or grandmom went to the University of Hawaii. … So how about a gift for Mits? Something to honor the guy or the gal that started the momentum. …  

Q: This is obviously very important to you.

A: It is my opinion that the University of Hawaii is our most important institution — that it has contributed and will contribute the most to increasing the quality of life and enhancing our standard of living. Full stop. Period. It’s that important. … 

The challenge sometimes in a smaller community is to differentiate between what’s interesting and what’s important. … It’s interesting that the basketball coach got fired, but the role that the university plays in the overall vitality of this community is important, and more and more and more important.

Q: Having an educated populace?

A: In an increasingly competitive environment.

Q: So moving forward with this additional investment on your part, how do you want to see that be used? 

A: What I did in 2006, the impact has exceeded all my expectations. … And so now, it is important for this to be a long-term gift to impact the university over a number of years, many decades. So we’ll stay focused on increasing the faculty endowment and increasing scholarships for students.

Q: The endowments are to pay faculty? 

A: That’s right. It’s augmenting obviously what the Legislature contributes. Unfortunately, what they’re contributing to pay for faculty may not always be sufficient to attract somebody who is world class. You have to add to that.

Q: Do you worry that the Legislature will come to depend on outside donors and not pick up their end? It is a public university, after all.

A: Everybody knows that as soon as a donor thinks that he’s going to be effectively substituting money, those donations stop. And so you hope it won’t happen. … But (nationwide) the trend is that public support for public universities, meaning taxpayers, has been declining. … So the Legislature should support the university but it’s also a fact of life that donors have to step up, too. … Build the endowments, build the scholarships; that’s how you build great universities. Private colleges and private prep schools have known this forever. 

Q: So do you think that there is an untapped capacity in terms of donations for UH?

A: Of course, yes. It’s the realization that they can make difference. One, first off, that they’re allowed to donate. That’s the permissioning that we talked about. Second, that it could make a real difference. Third, that they could attach it to something, whether it’s naming a school, naming a building, naming a room, naming a bench. It’s something that’s permanent. … The challenge is to communicate the role that this university plays in this state at a level that resonates, which is higher-paying jobs.

Q: Can you talk a little bit about that?

A: What’s happening now is that producers of high-value goods and services can live any place on the planet. High-value goods and services are shipped by pressing the “send” button. And you can press the “send” button from the yacht off Cap Ferrat or Newport Beach or Honolulu. But also what’s happening now is that the biggest producers of high-value goods and services are living in the Pacific Rim. … When I talk to people who have moved their business here to Hawaii, they’re moving their business here … for a very unusual reason. It’s not to do business in Hawaii. … It’s to do business from Hawaii. … Their market is not Honolulu. Their market is every place else. 

Q: But they like living here?

A: Right. They say, gee, my Internet works as well here as it does in Palo Alto, but my family just feels more comfortable. Because we can walk down the street and see people who look like us. So it’s an easy place for folks from the Pacific Rim to relocate. …  And those people bring their jobs with them. They’re not goring anybody’s ox. They’re not taking anybody’s job away. They actually bring their job with them and then they’re looking around and saying, OK, I need three new analysts and four more people for the office. That’s one role that the UH plays: educating people so they can earn a good living and not have to move away. … It’s about bringing back some of our diaspora …  Facilitating the creation of those jobs is one of the biggest roles that the business school is playing and will play. 

Q: I read in the profile of you on your company website that you formulate business strategies that are “bullet proof,” meaning that they can survive imperfections in implementation, undulations of an unsettled economy and any distance from its maker. How have you made this investment in UH bulletproof?

A: It’s a combination of strategy and tactics. Strategy is keeping the end in mind and tactics is how you get there. I know a lot more today about what makes a good university great, and a great university greater. My conclusion is basically endowments for faculty and scholarships for students. I think that’s more important than buildings. If you get those two right, everything else happens. … Focusing on those transcends some of the periodic melodrama that every university finds itself in, and particularly universities that are within walking distance of their state Capitols. 

Q: There is a lot of upheaval at UH, especially in recent years with the turnover in university leadership. … What’s your observation of that?

A: It’s important, but the question is: Has it diminished the quality of education? I don’t believe it has. I know that it hasn’t at the business school. … My point is that if you focus on your customer, meaning the student, and deliver the product, which is the education, that’s 95 percent of it.

Q: What inspired you to want to support UH in such a significant way?

A: It’s my school. To quote the Beach Boys: “Be true to your school.” Second, I happen to think that it’s the most important thing I can do for Hawaii because it’s a major college within the most important institution of Hawaii. … I can draw a closer link between supporting the business school and increasing our standard of living and quality of life in Hawaii than I can with any other institution. …

Q: The story has been well told: You made your first real-estate deal while a UH student. …. What advice would you give today’s college graduates?

A: My opinion is folks do very well if they’re doing what they like to do. And some folks have the ability to like what they’re doing, which allows them to do what they’re doing even better … So I think folks should find an area that really interests them and then push beyond reason. I always say play this game like your life depends on it, but at a certain point every day remember that it’s just a game. … No matter what, you’ll have gotten better at it.