KANE'OHE — Edward Yamashiro, founder and president of Ed Yamashiro Trucking and Ed Yamashiro Building Supply in Kane'ohe, never missed a day of work.

He even showed up on the day of his death, Saturday, when he was giving orders to truck drivers and instructions to his staff. He was 80.

Yamashiro's hard work and dedication helped create one of the biggest trucking companies on the island. His building supply company was his home away from home, and his children spent their early years at the business, said daughter Patty Yamashiro-Hironaka.

"He died doing what he loved doing," she said yesterday.

Yamashiro was also known for his generosity and willingness to help people in his community, said Roy Yanagihara, a Kane'ohe Neighborhood Board member. He was always donating supplies for projects and most recently gave paint to an anti-graffiti project, donated material for Eagle Scout projects and provided candy for the Kane'ohe Christmas Parade, Yanagihara said.

In 2004 the parade committee wanted to honor him by naming him the grand marshal, but he was too humble to attend, he said.

"The Yamashiro family have been very generous to our community but Ed's contributions go beyond the financial and material support he has given to local causes," Yanagihara said. "He personified the aloha spirit. He was both generous and humble, shunning public recognition for his good deeds. He was one of the reasons that Kane'ohe has the close sense of community that it does."

Yamashiro was born in He'eia on July 18, 1924, to Koki and Tsuru Yamashiro, who operated a fruit and vegetable stand where JJ Seafood is today. Yamashiro graduated from McKinley High School in 1942 and held down his first job as a dishwasher at Kress Store while attending school. After high school he was a taxi and Honolulu trolley driver, jobs that would later help him build his trucking business, Yamashiro-Hironaka said.

In 1947 he operated the Union 76 gas station in Kane'ohe. In 1955 he bought his first dump truck and he began hauling heavy equipment in 1957, she said. Yamashiro Building Supply opened in 1965.

His children were always part of the business, Yamashiro-Hironaka said. The boys started working in the machine shop when they were 5 or 6, she said. "Before I could do anything I was helping him rewire tail lights in the trailer. We all worked every day."

Those early years left such an impression on his children that even though their father provided opportunities for them in other fields, "we all came back to the business," Yamashiro-Hironaka said.

Chris Kalopodes Jr, a contractor, called Yamashiro a "hard-driving businessman" who didn't let people get away with making mistakes. Others described him as having an imposing personality and smoking 10 cigars a day.

But if customers couldn't find what they needed at other hardware stores, Yamashiro had it, said Mike Tanji, a contractor who knew Yamashiro for about 40 years.

"If I'm looking for something hard to find, hardware-wise, he was the man to see," Tanji said.

On the job every day, Yamashiro liked to make people laugh and he created a nice environment for his employees, said Tiara Companion, an employee.

"It's more like a family thing here," Companion said.

Yamashiro is survived by his wife of 55 years, Yoshiko; sons Byron, Aaron, Dwight and Clyde; and daughters Lisa Ann Tanaka and Yamashiro-Hironaka.

Correction: The date of Yamashiro high school's graduation was incorrect in a previous version of this story. His survivors include son Clyde Yamashiro, whose name was omitted from the previous version.