Stanley C. Kennedy Jr., a third-generation kama'aina who played a role in the development of aviation in the Pacific, died on March 28 in Longview, Texas, after a lengthy illness. He was 85.

Kennedy, born April 10, 1921, grew up around airlines as the son of Stanley C. Kennedy Sr., the Honolulu businessman who founded and ran Inter-Island Airways and its successor, Hawaiian Airlines. Kennedy attended Punahou School and later Choate Rosemary Hall, the famed New England preparatory school from which he graduated cum laude in 1938.

Kennedy went on to attend Yale University, and after graduation in 1942 he joined the U.S. Navy. Former Advertiser Publisher Thurston Twigg-Smith, who also attended Yale, said Kennedy served on the battleship North Carolina, supporting landings at a number of Pacific islands during World War II, and was trained as a member of underwater demolition teams that were the forerunner of today's Navy SEALs.

After the war, he returned to Honolulu where, like his father, he made a name for himself. Twigg-Smith remembers Ken-nedy as a man about town, working his way up at Hawaiian Airlines and then at Continental Airlines.

"He always looked like he came off of the tennis court," Twigg-Smith said. "He danced a mean hula, too."

He joined Hawaiian in 1946 as a mechanics helper and moved up through the ranks until he was named vice president of sales in 1966, according to the publication Men and Women of Hawai'i.

In 1971, he joined Continental Airlines and was elected vice president-Pacific. He also was a director of Air Micronesia.

In those roles, he played a part in expanding aviation in the Pacific as well as Hawai'i's tourist industry. He retired in 1985 and moved to the Mainland with his wife, Nancy.

Besides his airline work, Kennedy was active in the community, serving as a director of the Hawai'i Visitors Bureau and the Honolulu Chamber of Commerce.

He also was active in the Boy Scouts of America, a Hawai'i aerospace museum, Rotary International and the Pacific Area Travel Association.

He is survived by his wife, sister Patricia Scott and daughters Blair Parry-Okaden of Scone, Australia; Lani Pringle of Hillsborough, Calif.; Laura Kennedy of Boulder, Colo.; and seven grandchildren. He is also survived by son James Cox Kennedy, who is chairman and chief executive officer of Atlanta-based Cox Enterprises.

At his request, there will be no service and he will be interred in Hawai'i. The Leroy Rader Funeral Home of Longview said donations in his memory can be made to the National Hospice Foundation in Washington, D.C.

Reach Greg Wiles at gwiles@honoluluadvertiser.com.