He was for the community

LIHUE — Bill Porter, the E-Trade founder who funneled generous portions of his fortune into businesses and nonprofits benefiting organic farming, recreation and community building on Kauai’s North Shore, died Wednesday at his home in Princeville, surrounded by family and friends.

He was one month shy of his 87th birthday. The cause was complications of old age, said Joan Porter, Bill’s wife and partner in philanthropy.

Though widely known for revolutionizing stock trading, Bill is perhaps better known on Kauai as a straight shooter, a quiet mentor and one of the North Shore’s most influential altruists.

Frank and humble, he worked behind-the-scenes to materialize a wide range of philanthropic visions. Once up and running, he stepped aside, putting others in charge of his ventures so he would be free to start up something else.

“If you say you’re going to do something, you do it; that’s what he was about,” Joan said. “He was about taking responsibility for self. He didn’t care about socializing particularly, he cared about he and I being together and our family and he loved Hawaii. He loved Wai Koa, he loved the land, the beauty, and he was always kind. When he was younger, he was much more focused on needing to get ahead and get the job done, but as he mellowed in older age, he relaxed a little and really focused on giving.”

Bill’s desire to give back was no-nonsense, clear and simple, Joan said. He had achieved great success as a businessman and there was no question that he would do some public good with it.

Bill had three sons from his first marriage to his college sweetheart who is now deceased. He and Joan, who has one child from a previous marriage, have eleven grandchildren, a great-grandchild and two Bernese mountain dogs: Kona and Pax.

Bill and Joan Porter moved to the Garden Isle from California in 2004. After purchasing 500 acres in Kilauea, they started dreaming about how they could use the land to enrich the community through arts, education, recreation and agriculture. Bill was drawn to the property in part because of the serene Stone Dam, hidden deep on Wai Koa Plantation.

Every day at 3 p.m. Bill would load up the car with his three Bernese mountain dogs and drive to the dam. The dogs would run and Bill would perch himself on a stone wall to smoke a cigar and sip his frappuccino. From time to time there would be passersby, and he’d talk to them about his desire to open up the dam and portions of the surrounding acreage for public recreation.

“He was so interested in opening up Wai Koa and letting people walk through there and bike through there,” Joan said. “People would say, ‘Aren’t you worried about liability?’ and he would say, ‘Oh, for heaven’s sakes, no. This is for the community.’”

In 2009, his vision started to take shape under the name Anaina Hou, “a new gathering place.”

In addition to the Stone Dam and the 5-mile Wai Koa Loop trail, today Anaina Hou includes a skate park, playground, cafe and gift shop, nursery and park and ride lot. There are bicycle rentals, a recycling center and regularly scheduled farmers markets.

The crown jewel of the park is an 18-hole miniature golf course that blends water hazards and other tricky terrain with a tour of Hawaiian ecology and culture in a lush botanical garden setting.

Future plans for Anaina Hou include the building of an indoor-outdoor theater to host movies, concerts, educational events and hula.

“It gives a place for the community to come together, and we’re very glad to do that,” Bill told The Garden Island in an interview last year.

Another of Bill and Joan’s philanthropic endeavors on Wai Koa Plantation is Kauai Fresh Farms, which specializes in supplying the island with produce that’s organic and local. The farm grows lettuce, kale, tomatoes, cucumbers and basil in state-of-the-art hydroponic greenhouses. It is the first farm on the island to gain food-safety certification through the state Department of Agriculture.

The Porters also provide the funding for Puukumu, a private, independent middle and high school serving families on the North Shore from Haena to Moloaa.

Yoshi L’Hote, president of the Kilauea Neighborhood Association, said Bill and Joan’s willingness to open their private land to the public has been an immeasurable gift to the community.

“I think that overall he’s been a very big asset in demonstrating how wealthy people can still reach down to us and be part of the community and support the growth of Kilauea in a positive manner and in a manner that shares with all,” L’Hote said.

Born and raised in Boulder, Colorado, Bill spent his childhood summers working as a cowboy on a ranch. On the back of a horse, Porter developed the self-confidence and tireless drive that would later earn him immense success as an entrepreneur.

“I used to get up at four o’clock in the morning and it was my job to go out and get the horses in and so forth and come in and eat and sit on a horse all day long,” he told CNN in 2000. “When you’re in the homesteading frame of mind you just do things because they’re right and you have that self-confidence that just won’t quit.”

During World War II, Bill dropped out of high school to join the Navy. He was soon expelled when it came out that he was only 16. When he was old enough, he re-enlisted and served a tour of duty.

When he returned to civilian life, Bill earned degrees in mathematics and physics from Colorado’s Adams State College and Kansas State University. He completed his undergraduate degree in three years while working nights as a crew dispatcher on the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad.

Bill went on to work at the National Bureau of Standards, General Electric and Textron Corporation. He also worked on top secret military projects, he told CNN. Before Sputnik, he built the first infrared horizon sensor, making it possible to stabilize a satellite in outer space, the news outlet reported.

Bill ended his work for the military in the mid-1960s to attend the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he earned his Masters of Business Administration as a Sloan Fellow. It was here that he honed his business sense.

In 1982, Bill helped revolutionize stock trading by founding an electronic service for stock brokers that processed the world’s first online trade. In the 1990s, when the World Wide Web started to flourish, he saw an opportunity to capitalize on that experience by creating an electronic service that would allow individual investors to make their own trades. The result, E-Trade, transformed the brokerage industry.

Bill later founded International Securities Exchange Holdings Inc. and became its first chairman on his 70th birthday.

In 1999, Bill and Joan gifted $25 million to MIT to build the William A. Porter Management Center for Management Education.

In his last few years, Bill started to wind down. He was losing energy, losing muscle and losing strength. Then he couldn’t drive anymore. He was bedridden during his last four months.

On June 1, when Bill and Joan celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary, Bill asked for a curious gift: Puppies.

Knowing he didn’t have much life left in him, Joan relented. She presented her dog-loving husband with a tiny Maltese and a tiny Shih Tzu-Maltese.

The puppies jumped on Bill’s bed and brought him joy. Joan named them Billy and Willie.

“Knowing that little dogs live for a long time, I figured they would be with me for the rest of my life, probably, and that he wouldn’t, so I named them after him,” Joan said. “He said to me, ‘These little dogs are so good, this is the best gift you ever gave me.’”

A public celebration of Bill Porter’s life will take place at 4:30 p.m. on Oct. 24 at the Stone Dam at Wai Koa. The Porter family will spread his ashes at the dam at a private ceremony before the event. In lieu of flowers, the Porter family asks that donations be made to Puukumu School or Anaina Hou.