Hawaii News Now - KGMB and KHNL HomeDaniel Lau receives Honolulu Forever Young award

Daniel Lau receives Honolulu Forever Young award

By Tracy Gladden - bio | email

OAHU (KHNL) - An Oahu man's work and selfless giving, has impacted Hawaii's communities in many ways.

KHNL News 8 introduces Daniel B.T. Lau, who's an honoree in the first annual Honolulu Forever Young awards.

"It keeps me working because I find that it's more fun working than staying at home," said Lau.

Daniel Lau has run several companies providing hundreds of jobs in Hawaii.

Through the years, he has dedicated his time and energy to giving back to the community that gave him so much.

Including his love of baseball.

"Instead of studying I think I spent most of my time playing, and that's where I was fortunate enough to become a good athlete," Lau said.  "Lasted me for the rest of my life and I'm still doing sports even today at 89 years old."

His junior year at the University of Hawaii he was the best intramural athlete.

"Two months after I graduated, I was drafted in the U.S. Army."

Five months later, he became a witness to history.

"Immediately after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, we had to go back to Schofield Barracks get our equipment and ammunition and our outfit had to control half of the island from Kahuku to downtown," said Lau.  "Passing Pearl Harbor where we witnessed the devastation in Pearl Harbor with the huge ships on fire."

During the Battle of the Bulge, after nine days in combat, he was injured.

"Outside of a shattered arm and shrapnel in my back, I managed to survive."

After he was discharged he proposed to his wife.

"When I asked her mother that I wanted to marry her, she told me that I have to get a job first."

Returning to Hawaii, he worked for the Honolulu Trust Company where he and his old friends formed Finance Factors in 1952.

The company earned the Better Business Bureau's Torch award for Business Ethics.

"The key to life I think is education and so many people have a difficult time paying tuition and all so we are helping a lot of people in that way."

He gives scholarships to international students, and to the University of Hawaii's baseball team and business school.

"I find that this is a very enjoyable part of my life and I'm kept very very busy."

Daniel Lau has received countless awards in his lifetime and recently dedicated this beautiful stained glass window to the United Church of Christ.

Now he is writing his biography with the help of his grandson.