Bill attended the New Mexico Military Academy, graduated from Wilson High School in Long Beach and received his B.A. in Journalism from the University of California at Berkeley on July 28, 1959. He was previously married to Odetta Moffett-Hurlock who died in Lahaina on March 7, 1990.
Bill moved to Lahaina from California in the late '60s and developed the Lokelani, Nohonani, Hololani and Polo Beach Club condominiums in Maui, and engaged in many other real estate ventures following which he segued into a late career as a stock market investor. He resided in Lahaina for much of his adult life, but moved to Honolulu after the death of his mother Helen Hensen Moffett Downey on July 19, 1995 who had moved her domicile to Lahaina from Long Beach sometime in the mid 1980's. He married Carol on December 23, 1985.
Bill used to say that he retired in 1974 following the completion and sale of the Hololani condominium and bought a fishing boat which he could charter out in order that he could fish (and not work) for the rest of his life. But, unfortunately, the money ran out so that he had to go back to work in 1981 when he started the development of the Polo Beach Club. However, he did enjoy fly fishing for salmon in Alaska at various lodges virtually every year between 1997 and 2013, and tried peacock bass fishing on the Amazon in 1999 and taiman fishing in Mongolia in 2008. An avid traveler he visited foreign countries each year between 1994 and 2015, going to Zimbabwe twice in 1994 and in 1996, Tanzania in 1996 and 2005, China from Beijing to Kasgar, St. Petersburg, India, Croatia, France, Spain and Portugal, eating his way through as many Michelin starred restaurants as was possible en route.
His ashes will be scattered in the ocean off Lahaina in a private ceremony for family, and his son Buz, who resides in Maui, intends to host a small celebration of life be held at the Lahaina Yacht Club later this month for friends and family.
Arrangements Provided By:
Nuuanu Memorial Park & Mortuary LLC
