HILO, Hawai'i — Joseph Ruiz Garcia Jr., a longtime Republican lawmaker and sugar industry executive beloved for his humor and expert pidgin, died Friday in Hilo. He was 90.

Garcia served 24 years in the territorial and state House of Representatives, where he was minority leader, and later was elected to the Hawai'i County Council.

As a politician, Garcia was noted for never holding a fundraiser and for limiting contributions to a few dollars, sending refunds to those he felt had offered too much.

He was born in 1915 in Keahua, Maui, to Spanish immigrant parents. At age 9, Garcia began working summers in the Pioneer Mill cane fields for 35 cents a day, and as an older youth became a leader in Future Farmers of America, representing Hawai'i at national conventions.

The Lahainaluna graduate was territorial champion in the mile run and competed in track and football at the University of California-Davis, despite weighing 130 pounds.

He continued to swim and jog throughout most of his life, even after suffering a heart attack in 1975.

In 1990, UC-Davis honored Garcia as a distinguished alumnus, the same year he was honored by Hawai'i County as an outstanding older American.

It was during his summers in the dusty cane fields of Maui that Garcia earned his lifelong nickname "Hukilepo Joe," or "gatherer of dirt," said son Robert Garcia.

"Hukilepo Joe" was the name the elder Garcia would later use as a humor columnist for the Hawaii Tribune-Herald newspaper before entering politics. His well-honed oratory skills, and his talent for speaking pidgin in various dialects, made Garcia much in demand as a speaker at political functions, weddings, reunions and even funerals. "He loved to tell a good joke but he always did so with taste. Nothing was over the line," Robert Garcia said.

Garcia served in the Legislature from 1949 to 1956, when he lost a re-election bid. He regained office in 1958 and retired in 1974 when his seat was eliminated in reapportionment. He served on the County Council from 1976 to 1980.

Garcia is survived by his wife, Ivy; sons William, Robert and Gregory; a sister, Frances Radford; and seven grandchildren.

A wake is scheduled from 5 to 9 p.m. June 2 at Dodo Mortuary in Hilo. Visitation will continue at 8:30 a.m. June 3 at Good Shepherd Catholic Church in Honomu, with a Mass at 10 a.m. Burial will be at Homelani Cemetery.