Walter F. Dillingham

Walter F. Dillingam (1875-1963), also called the Baron of Hawai‘i Industry, was a leading industrialist and entrepreneur from Honolulu, Hawai‘i. A highly influential businessman, he gained favors from Hawai‘i politicians to develop urban Honolulu. In 1919, Dillingham built a palatial villa at Papa‘ena‘ena, an ancient Hawaiian altar to the surf and place of human sacrifice to the god Kūka‘ilimoku, on the slopes of Diamond Head. The home, called La Pietra, is now a . Dillingham is most famous for draining the wetlands of Waikīkī in the early 1920s and creating the Ala Wai Canal on whose banks the Hawai‘i Convention Center was built. Dillingham is buried at the Valley of the Temples Memorial Park in Kāne‘ohe.