By Bob Krauss
Advertiser Columnist

Today we will explore my theory that a lot of top executives in Our Honolulu would rather be somebody else. Not that they aren't good at their jobs. But, as for most people, the grass is greener on the other side of the fence.

Take the late Walter F. Dillingham, whose construction firm changed the face of our Island. I think he would have preferred to be King Henry VIII, who had six wives. But Walter Dillingham was better looking than Henry VIII. He was tall, handsome and suave. Talk about gallant. Walter built La Pietra in imitation of the Italian palace where he proposed to Louise. He was a man's man; a teenage tennis star, Kalakaua's poker table stood in his study.

On the other hand, Chinn Ho, who parlayed real estate into a fortune, should have been Walter Mitty. He could turn daydreams into reality in the blink of an eye. He'd take a ride out to sleepy, bankrupt Wai'anae Plantation. Tapaka-tapaka. There was the booming Wai'anae Coast. Chinn would glance at a mud flat at one end of Waikiki. Tapaka-tapaka. There was the Ilikai Hotel.

My old friend Thurston Twigg-Smith, who saved The Advertiser, is so mixed up he can't decide whether to build another classroom at Punahou, collect some more stamps, start a new art museum or publish another book.

Another example out on Nimitz Highway is Jim Romig. He has a loft at Hilo Hattie's that cuts more Tahitian print mu'umu'u than any place in the world. So why does he own three yachts — one in Honolulu, one in Tahiti and one in Fiji? I'm convinced that Romig pictures himself as the steely-eye skipper of an America's Cup racer, barking orders to his crew, all of whom are wearing Hilo Hattie aloha shirts.

Take Dwayne "Nakila" Steel, who built a paving company into one of the 10 biggest construction firms in the Pacific. He has always got his nose in an old Hawaiian newspaper looking for forgotten Hawaiian history. Did you know that he flew all the way to a library in England to find out how many Hawaiians there were in the Confederate navy?

Dudley Pratt, who turned Hawaiian Electric into a conglomerate, is really a fisherman underneath. He spent five years building a haole sampan in his back yard. How about Campbell Estate trustee Dave Heenan, who writes books? What Heenan yearns for is the Nobel Prize in Literature so he can be interviewed on the "News Hour With Jim Lehrer" about his theories on the global economy.

Advertiser publisher Mike Fisch gets himself confused with our Christmas fund. You can't name a benefit fund drive or a charity ball that he's not part of. Oddly enough, it makes circulation go up. Riley Allen, late editor of the Star-Bulletin was like that. He was on the guest list of every cultural event in town. That's just a sample. I could name many more.

Reach Bob Krauss at 525-8073.