Wriston, son of prominent Honolulu attorney A. James Wriston Jr., was involved in various Ka'anapali Development Corp. projects, such as the community-based, master-planned Ka'anapali 2020 and the Waine'e affordable housing project. He also was founder and co-owner of Kahua Nurseries on O'ahu and Hawaiian Earth Products, the state's largest compost producer, which sold products under the Menehune Magic brand.

Wriston was born Sept. 4, 1955, in Honolulu. He graduated from Punahou School in 1973 and earned a Bachelor of Science degree in agriculture from the University of Hawai'i at Hilo.

He began his career with Ka'anapali Development Corp.'s parent company, Amfac Inc., in 1988, serving as a field engineer for O'ahu Sugar. He was promoted to manager of land administration, and in 1995 moved to Kaua'i to become the director of plantation sugar administration for Amfac Sugar Kaua'i.

He returned to O'ahu Sugar in 1997 and moved to Maui in June 2000 to assume his post with Ka'anapali Development Corp. Months before, the company, after admitting it erred in previous West Maui developments, had convened a planning conference and enlisted about 100 community volunteers to help devise the Ka'anapali 2020 Project Development Area Plan. The plan includes 2,810 housing units, a golf course, school, hospital and other facilities on 1,154 acres of former canefields above the resort.

One of those volunteers, Buck Buchanan of Lahaina, said yesterday that Wriston came on board and made sure the public stayed involved in the process. "He was an honest-to-god, Hawaiian-born, polite guy who listened to everybody," Buchanan said. "He worked at getting the input from the people who were volunteering like myself and made sure people were alerted to the meetings."

In addition to development projects, Wriston recently was spearheading community discussions on the company's efforts to preserve coffee cultivation in West Maui and to develop a plan for demolition of the Pioneer Mill without destroying the towering smokestack that has become a Lahaina landmark.

"He gave heart and soul, striving to ensure that our projects blended with the community's wishes," said Ka'anapali Development Corp. Executive Vice President Stephen Lovelette in a statement.

Wriston also was involved in numerous community groups such as the West Maui Taxpayers Association, the LahainaTown Action Committee, the Rotary Club of Lahaina, the Lahaina Restoration Foundation, the Maui Chamber of Commerce, the Maui Hotel Association and the Maui Historical Society. He was president of the Ka'anapali Golf Estates Community Association.

His father said that he loved the outdoors and that deep-sea fishing was his passion.