Nearly six years ago, Peter Boylan came to us as a 24-year-old rookie reporter with about a year's experience in a suburban bureau of the Kansas City Star.

Normally we wouldn't settle on someone so green, but Boylan had poise, self confidence and enthusiasm and talked his way into the job. The huge upside on Boylan was that he was a local boy ('Iolani grad) looking to work his way to the top, and you couldn't help but admire his pluck.

His early days were rocky as he tried to navigate between his lack of experience and our high expectations of him, but eventually Boylan turned out to be a first-rate reporter.

In a recommendation I wrote for him to the dean of UH's Shidler College of Business, I said that he "possessed the raw set of tools that, when developed, would serve us well."

In the past few years, we have seen him grow before our eyes, aggressively covering law enforcement, City Hall and the state Legislature, at times juggling all three beats simultaneously while earning his MBA with honors. Some of my favorite and most maddening moments were spent debating with Boylan over a story angle or why we should even cover the story at all.

He always admitted to his mistakes and always had the interest of The Advertiser at heart.

Boylan was never content to just cover the news conference or court hearing and simply regurgitate what was fed to him. He was always looking to break news and he did so often. He was constantly on the front page and developed excellent sources within the Honolulu Police Department, the FBI and other law enforcement agencies.

Ever ambitious, Boylan was looking for other opportunities to advance himself the past few months and he was approached by U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye's office to become his chief spokesman. On another occasion, I might have tried to talk him out of leaving The Advertiser but after several long discussions, I came to realize that this was a good opportunity for Boylan in that he will learn much about politics and policy in Washington, D.C., while Inouye is at the height of power.

We wish Peter Boylan the best of luck and are pleased that we took a chance on a bright young man with an unlimited future.