Old Dad New Dad
In his 60s, and with his first family grown up, former Alexander & Baldwin CEO Allen Doane is starting over - and loving every minute. In the classic Russian novel Strange Life of Ivan Osokin, the protagonist finds himself living his life again while retaining all the knowledge of his first try at it
By Chad Pata
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“We weren’t poor, we were just like everybody else and media didn’t have its big hand around people’s expectations back then. I was none the worse for it, and probably better off for it. I had the advantage of an disadvantaged childhood.”
Despite graduating in the lower half of his high school class, he went on to attend college at BYU and received an MBA from Harvard, where he was a classmate of George W. Bush and Mitt Romney. Upon graduating from BYU in 1969, the Vietnam War came calling for him, but rather than getting drafted by the Army, he volunteered for the Navy.
“At the time there weren’t many of us who wanted to go into the service, but I knew there were not any Viet Cong submarines, so I joined the Navy,” says Doane with a laugh. “Would I have joined the military if it weren’t for Selective Service? No. But would I have joined if I were five years older? I probably would, back when we thought there were noble objectives in Vietnam.”
The Navy brought Doane to the Islands, where he has now spent the better part of the past 40 years of his life. In October of 1998 he was named CEO of Alexander & Baldwin, a position he held until the beginning of this year, when he stepped down to focus more on the family and the new paradigm of fatherhood.
“Back then there was a little different set of expectations; raising the kids was the woman’s job, more traditional,” says Doane, who rarely changed a diaper the first time around.
“Today there is a more even distribution and I think that is a lot better. Also people feel an increasing sensitivity to raising children right. So I have got to go through this major generational shift, getting to do something in one generation and then do it again in the next.
“As a CEO, I always maintained I needed to be an agent of change. Well, I am a ‘change agent’ now all right!”
His day revolves around the kids now, waking up at 6:30 a.m. with them and getting young Alex off to preschool.
“I know when I go to my son’s preschool I’m the oldest dad there, and it’s not even close,” says Doane with a smile.
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He spends a half day in the office now - he goes to the “office” now, not to “work” - where he still serves on several boards including A&B and First Hawaiian Bank. His afternoons are spent exercising, trying to keep in shape for the little ones.
“You get to a certain age - I’m at the grandparent age - where with kids you don’t sweat the small stuff, and that’s the best part,” says Doane, who admits to getting a little muzzy after a full day with two rug rats.
“I’m not going to tell you it’s easy this time around, but I really enjoy it. I don’t get all worked up. I’m not so programmed - a lot less discipline and a lot more love. Being older, it’s a lot easier to express the love. The hard part is you’re a lot more tired!
“You chase them around all day, they wear you down. We weren’t built to be running around after a 1-year-old when we are in our 60s. The two happiest moments of my day are when my children wake up and when they go to bed!”
So Doane looks forward to the years to come with a firm grip on reality. As he speaks of attending his daughter’s graduation in 2027, he uses an office chair to mimic the walker he will need to greet her afterward.
“There are a lot of dads out there who are better than me. I don’t want to give anyone the impression that I think I’m the world’s greatest dad,” says Doane. “What I am is one of the oldest dads! That is the one thing I am sure of. I don’t feel like I need to redeem myself, but I do feel like I need to enjoy it more this time.”
Perhaps that’s the lesson Mr. Osokin needed to learn in life: It is not that we need to live it any differently, but that we should just enjoy it for what it is.
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