Kenneth Shiro Shioi (1916-2011), the son of Japanese immigrant parents Taroku and Haruyo Shioi, was born at Makaweli, Kauai, and moved to Honolulu with his family at an early age.
As a young man with an 8th grade education, he attended night classes at trade school to study blueprint reading, while working for several construction companies.
This work included carpentry at Aliamanu Crater with the Army Corps of Engineers, the Naval Air Station on Kaneohe Bay, which is now Marine Base Hawaii, Barbers Point Naval Air Station, and the fuel storage tanks on Red Hill.
When Pearl Harbor was attacked on Dec. 7, 1941, Shioi planned to enlist in the Army, but the Pearl Harbor base commander prevented him, because of his value to the war effort as a builder.
In 1948, Shioi founded Kenneth Shioi &Co., Ltd. in Honolulu for the primary purpose of building single family residences for individuals and for land development, with emphasis on quality materials, design and workmanship.
His first employees were his brothers, Robert and Stanley Shioi, and his brothers-in-law, Masao “Masa” Fujimoto and Norimitsu “Nori” Fujimoto.
In order to build their first house, Shioi borrowed $10,000 from State Savings &Loan.
The lot for this house in Alewa Heights cost Shioi $4,800, and he built a simple home for $8,000, which sold for $15,000, earning him $2,200 in profit.
Shioi’s first housing tract, Anolani at Kaneohe in 1950, comprising 34 single family dwellings, was undertaken in 1960.
From there, his business grew with the construction of numerous subdivisions, schools, condominiums and other structures.
In 1968, Shioi decided to build homes on Kauai.
Among Shioi’s many building projects on Kauai are Coconut Plantation Marketplace, Westin Kauai Lagoons, Cliffside, Main Lihue Post Office, Hanalei Colony Resort, Kauai Main Police Facility and Anchor Cove.
In 1985, after working alongside Shioi for more than a decade, Conrad and Eloise (Shioi’s daughter) Murashige bought Shioi Construction.
Today, Conrad Murashige is the chairman of Shioi Construction and Roy Shioi, Shioi’s grandson, is its president.
Kenneth Shiro Shioi and his wife, Esther (1919-2021), had four children: Randall, Allene, Eloise and Shereen.
