"Some people think of 65 or 60 as an age when they should be retiring," said Hong, known in the Islands for his role with the chamber and, before that, as president and CEO of the Hawai'i Visitors & Convention Bureau.

"But there are many more who go beyond that. I never thought of that as a cap, so to speak, but just another phase of one's life. I never thought, 'When I reach 60 or 65, I'm going to retire.' Instead, it was just: 'What am I going to do?' "

Hong says he has relied on a combination of planning and serendipity in charting his career course, which includes stints as vice president of administration and general counsel at TheoDavies & Co. Ltd. and, before that, as an executive with TheoDavies' parent, Jardine, Matheson and Co. Ltd. in Hong Kong.

His new post, as head of the Hawai'i arm of Houston-based firm Waste Management, uses the same management and executive leadership skills he's honed in previous positions, Hong said.

"It didn't faze me," he said of overseeing the company that manages the landfills on O'ahu, Kaua'i and the island of Hawai'i. "It's just another challenge. It's not something I can't do."

Hong is a great believer in the salutary benefits of working.

"I've always worked," he said. "I found it to be, No. 1, very satisfying. And it certainly keeps you healthy mentally and physically. And it also keeps you sharp mentally."

Some people, Hong suggested, retire too early, and then begin to deteriorate mentally and physically.

"That's why my father, I think, lived very long," he said. "He had his patients to look after. ... He had a job to go to, a place to go to and people to talk to."

But Hong is also a believer in the benefits of taking a break between jobs. He left the visitors bureau in 1993 after spending more than nine years in the post and raising the annual amount of money the bureau received to promote Hawai'i from $2 million to $35 million.

For more than two years he worked as a consultant, in addition to serving on several corporate boards. After the intensity of the visitors bureau, the break was restorative, he says.

"I was really burned out and I wanted to do something different," Hong said. "Being a consultant ... helped me take my time and do what I wanted. That R & R period when even though I was still working, I was not working as hard, was great. ...

"I think you need to take time, not only to rest your body and mind, but then to give some thought as to, 'Well, what are you going to do now?' "

Hong was offered the Waste Management of Hawaii job by A. Maurice Myers, a former president and chief executive officer of Aloha Airlines who is now chairman, president and chief executive of parent company Waste Management Inc.

Hong started at Waste Management three months after leaving the chamber job in part because he needed another "breathing spell" after being with the chamber for more than five years.

He also wanted to spend time on his work as a trustee with the King William Charles Lunalilo Trust Estate, a position he has held since June 2001.

Retirement from Waste Management is not on the horizon, Hong said.