With his flight being called in the background, the new acting president of the University of Hawai'i speaks with ease and clarity of how important it is to move forward smoothly after Evan Dobelle's firing — for the sake of the state, the students and the stability of the university.

"The board and I would agree that the principal focus would be ensuring we have the most stable, productive and forward-looking transition we can have," McClain said yesterday.

In the difficult first days of his new administration, McClain is calling on the crisis management skills he gained as an Army first lieutenant serving in the Vietnam War and honed as senior staff economist for President Jimmy Carter and as a member of Carter's Council of Economic Advisors.

Those who know him best say he can handle whatever comes along, and Board of Regents' chairwoman Patricia Lee said he has the board's trust. Regents are talking about giving back to McClain certain powers (over hiring in particular) that they stripped from Dobelle last October.

"We have utmost confidence in him," Lee said last night. "We've been working closely with him for a year now and very successfully."

And while Lee said it's too soon to talk about a timetable for a presidential search, she said "it won't be soon ... We need to settle down."

An easy personal manner and consensus-building style, along with a stellar reputation in Hawai'i and the nation built on strengths in management, economic forecasting and international business make McClain perhaps as prepared for the position as the man he replaced, Dobelle.

"He's the right guy for the job. Forget this 'temporary' thing," says Robert "Bob" Lees, one of McClain's best friends, speaking from Singapore yesterday during a business trip for the Bearingpoint consulting firm.

"I can never remember a time when David McClain wasn't there when I needed advice, counsel or a shoulder to lean on," Lees said.

Lees called McClain "an amazing guy" who rallied community support for the Pacific Basin Economic Council formerly headquartered in Hawai'i.

When Lees arrived in Hawai'i 12 or 13 years ago and started meeting people, McClain was there "saying, 'How can I help you?' " he recalled. "He's such an important player in the Hawai'i community, particularly in education, business and economics. During the time he was dean of the UH Business School, there's no question its image, quality and positive perception increased dramatically. It wasn't taken nearly as seriously as a business school before David came into that position."

But regents have said there will be a search, and that's the accepted practice.

"I think the regents owe it to the community to do a full search," said Randy Hitz, dean of the UH-Manoa College of Education.

On Wednesday, McClain charted a positive and grounded future for the university, making three commitments: the first, to continue support and aggressive backing for programs for Native Hawaiians, "the host culture"; the second, to provide a "transformational" experience for students and their families at the university; and third, to provide a contribution to the state, noting that UH serves 80,000 students and generates 3 percent of the gross state product.

But he also credited Dobelle, who chose him to be second-in-command for the system, as the one "who brought hope, energy and enthusiasm to the university" and as someone with whom he enjoyed working.

McClain's comfortable personality and easy style have come from a lifetime of crisis management, he says, and from his experience in the Vietnam War.

"I've always for some reason, thanks to my mother and father, had a pretty even-handed disposition," he says. "But it was the experience in Vietnam and the Council of Economic Advisors. We got all kinds of stuff. This is another one of the 'chaos is a big part of your day' situations. But we have an excellent team."

Educated at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he earned a doctorate in economics, McClain headed global economic information services for Data Resources Inc.

He taught at MIT's Sloan School of Management, and has headed the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Business Management Network, coming to Hawai'i and the Manoa campus in 1991 as the Henry J. Walker Jr. Distinguished Professor of Business Enterprise and professor of Financial Economics and Institutions. Later he was named the First Hawaiian Bank Distinguished Professor of Leadership and Management.

McClain was a single father of a young daughter before marrying a student teacher in her kindergarten class, the former Wendie Kastler. The two have three grown daughters.