William F. Jacintho
Year Inducted: 2013
Grove Ranch | Hawai'i
Born on November 12, 1933, William F. Jacintho became the third generation of the Jacintho family to ranch. The family ranch was located in the Kula area. Sundays were filled with paniolo work, as family members would work cattle on horseback at each other’s ranches.
Besides family ranching, William first worked for Grove Ranch in 1957. Long hours, rain or shine, all ranch tasks were part of his ranch duties. He planted grass in the pouring rain for days, gathering cattle and discovering shear cliffs, where he was thankful that his horse knew the way better than he did. The “old folks” taught him skills like slaughterhouse processing in the middle of the night, before starting a full day’s work at Grove Ranch. In 1963, Grove Ranch closed down, and the ranch parcels and cattle were auctioned off for lease to other ranchers. William was able to win some of the bids, and was able to raise a few more head.
As the years went by, he leased more land from independent landowners, and raised more head of cattle. He would buy stockers from everywhere on the island. William started a herd during high school to stock a little feedlot that gradually grew to 250 head. Before Maui Pineapple Company closed; he fed pineapple by-products as a large part of the feed. His finished cattle were slaughtered at the local slaughterhouses on Maui, and marketed to local mom-and-pop stores. When the mom-andpop stores closed down, he shipped carcasses in quarters out to an Oʻahu market. Eventually, the local bulk feed became unavailable, and the feedlot was forced to close.
With long hours of ranch work, and a humble can-do attitude, he always kept a day job. His earlier jobs were as a butcher/clerk at Maui Dry Goods, Kula branch, then as an irrigation system installer for the Field Engineering Department at HC&S for fourteen years, and finally as a butcher at the Kula Hospital for 20 years. After his retirement from his day job 23 years ago, he was able to fulfill his dream of ranching fulltime.
At age 79, Willy continues to raise, manage, and market (to restaurants and family homes) his own grass-finished breeding herd of Black Angus and Brangus cattle. He still buys cattle from a few people to keep his pastures filled. Willy and his wife of 56 years, Shirley, live on the ranch, and have a daughter Eunice and a son William, five grand children, and one great-grand child.