Former Dillingham Corp. executive Harold M. Wilson died Sunday at his home in Tucson, Ariz. He was 80.

He joined the Honolulu construction and engineering firm in 1964 and worked extensively throughout Asia on major energy, industrial and infrastructure projects. He later became a senior executive at Bechtel Corp., living in Indonesia for two decades before retiring.

Wilson first came to Hawai'i as a Marine during World War II. While stationed here, he played for the Weyenberg Dragons, a semiprofessional basketball team coached by Walter Wong, who would coach Saint Louis School to several high school championships.

After the war, Wilson received a degree in economics from the University of Illinois-Champaign, where he was listed on the school's Bronze Tablet for high scholarship. He received a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship from Princeton University, which he used to undertake graduate studies at the University of California-Berkeley.

Wilson, an avid golfer as well as a longtime member of Outrigger Canoe Club, was born Nov. 7, 1925 in Danville, Ill.

He is survived by his wife, Anastasia Meitie; sons Martin Wilson and Totok, Olly and Ossy Dewanta; daughters Christie Wilson Leon, Gina Alamsjah and Nita de Britto; and 14 grandchildren. Services will be held in Tucson, with interment at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.