Posted on: Tuesday, March 5, 2002

Robert R. Dye, local YMCA executive, dead at 80

Advertiser Staff

Robert R. Dye, a longtime executive with the YMCA in Hawai'i, died Feb. 27 in Honolulu. He was 80.

Dye was born in Honolulu and graduated from Roosevelt High School. He earned a degree in sociology at Whittier College, where he was student body president and was listed in Who's Who in American Colleges and Universities.

Dye began his long affiliation with the YMCA as a club leader and camp counselor in Honolulu before going into the Army, where he served as a paratrooper with the 101st Airborne Division, spending 27 months in England, France and Belgium during World War II. After leaving the Army, he worked in Los Angeles as a director and secretary with the YMCA.

In 1951, he returned to Hawai'i as the executive secretary of the Nu'uanu branch of the YMCA.

Dye became the general secretary of the YMCA of Honolulu in 1960, a position he held until 1967 when he left to become director of urban development and extension of the National Council of YMCAs in New York.

But Hawai'i was always his home, and Dye returned and served as interim president and chief executive officer of the YMCA of Honolulu. In addition to his work with the YMCA, Dye was active in other youth community projects, such as the Kiwanis club.

Dye is survived by his wife, Esther; daughters, Lee Takagi and Christiane Owren-Heurich; sons, Peter, Gregg and Mark; and seven grandchildren.

Services will be Sunday at 4:30 p.m. at Church of the Crossroads, 1212 University Ave. Donations may be made to the YMCA of Honolulu or the Church of the Crossroads.