KAILUA-KONA — Alan Delatorre Jr. was a quiet, easygoing guy who loved fishing, family and work, not necessarily in that order.
With fishing, anything in the ocean would suffice. Alan Jr., as his friends and family called him, could be spotted throwing nets from the shore — sometimes still wearing his work shirt. He’d clock out from a landscaping shift at Coconut Grove Marketplace and be throwing nets off Alii Drive within minutes, not bothering to change.
“Take your work shirt off when you’re off the clock,” his bosses would remind him.
But they knew his passions, so it was never a real scolding. The 45-year-old was wild about his job, ohana and the ocean and the order was anyone’s guess.
“All kinds,” Delatorre’s father, Alan Delatorre Sr., said about his son favorite way to fish, whether diving, netting or going after marlin from a boat. “He was very good.”
It was when Alan Jr. didn’t show up for work the weekend of Oct. 5-6 following a night dive that Friday that those close to him began to worry.
An employee of JW Cleaning Systems and HIL Maintenance who primarily worked as caretaker of Coconut Grove, Alan Jr. never took a day off. He’d busted his hump seven days a week 365 days a year for the last five years.
Literally.
“I knew it wasn’t good because Alan doesn’t miss work,” said Jason Watford, JW Cleaning Systems owner. “Alan was the equivalent of two people.”
On Oct. 6, Hawaii Fire Department divers recovered clothes and diving equipment in the waters near the buoy that were identified as belonging to Alan Jr. The equipment, found off shore from the former Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. on Alii Drive, indicated damage to the clothing attributed to sharks, the department said.
A week later, his body still hasn’t been recovered, leaving friends and family waiting for closure but remembering a man who went through life always wearing a smile.
“I miss him a lot,” Alan Sr. said last week, while taking a break at work.
He, too, works for JW Cleaning Systems and HIL Maintenance every day of the week, a work ethic he passed down to his son.
“Me and him, we used to talk story and all that,” Alan Sr. said.
They’d talk about work, fishing, family — all the things in Jr.’s wheelhouse — and cooking.
That was another quality Alan Jr. did with gusto, like his father. Among his best dishes was a Filipino-style steamed pork belly with sugar and honey, “nice and thick and brown,” a recipe he taught his father how to prepare.
“Broke da mouth, oh god, that was his favorite word,” Alan Sr. said. “My son and I, we like spicy.”
If Alan Jr. wasn’t cooking for himself, he was cooking for somebody else. He shared most everything he caught from the ocean, too.
Kito Graciidis was Alan Jr.’s dive partner the last seven years. Together, they hauled up a lot of lobsters.
“Too many to count,” Graciidis said.
But the bounty wasn’t just for them. If Alan Jr.’s or if Graciidis’ friends needed lobster for a party they were hosting, the two would go collect them. Sometimes, they’d just gift them to kupuna divers who no longer could go under water but still had an affinity for fresh shellfish.
“We’ve been blessed, it’s just been a blessing,” Graciidis said of those memories. “We’ve blessed a lot of people.”
The two were supposed to go diving for lobster Oct. 4 but Graciidis called Alan Jr. that afternoon and canceled on account the water was too rough and murky.
“OK, shoots,” Alan Jr. told Graciidis.
It seems strange now, Graciidis said, knowing that that was the last time the two would speak.
But what made Alan Jr. a great dive partner were the same attributes his employers and family treasured: Loyal, trustworthy, dependable, skilled.
“It was very hard to find one good dive partner, it took me a while,” Graciidis said. “I trusted him with my life.”
The two met in the ocean in front of Living Stones Church. They threw shakas, talked story, then would see each other out more and more frequently before finally exchanging phone number and becoming official partners.
On Oct. 6, HFD suspended the search for Alan Jr. but Graciidis continued to go down and look for his friend, sweeping the entire bay in all familiar spots from Hale Halawai to Huggos.
“I know if I’m going to get in trouble he’s going to come down and get me,” Graciidis said.
Alan Jr., 45, leaves behind two children, a son and daughter.
His son, Mark, works for HIL Maintenance and his daughter, Rae, worked next to her father at Coconut Grove with JW Cleaning Systems. The two companies work side by side, employing the Delatorre family members. Alan Jr. was teaching his daughter every detail of maintaining Coconut Grove, whose tenants knew them by name.
“He took care of it like it was his own,” said Joe Pereira, HIL Maintenance owner, who hired Alan Jr. as the company’s first employee. “That’s just the kind of guy he was.”
Strange as it may sound, Alan Jr. would get an occasional lecture from his superiors for working too much. Never one to waste anything, Alan Jr. would sort the recycling out of the trash he was supposed to be dumping or he’d stay longer than what his time card showed.
“Alan, what are you still doing here, you were supposed to leave an hour ago,” Pereira recalled telling the employee more than once.
He knew local plants and soil like a true island horticulturist, gathered by a lifetime of paying attention to the land. With that came a knack for knowing what foliage needed pruning, how, and when. A joy for him in the last year and a half was that his daughter starting working next to him on the job.
“It’s hard without seeing him around, it’s hard, especially for my granddaughter,” said Marina Delatorre, Alan Jr.’s mother. “She really needs her dad.”
The family is coping, she said, but the situation is made more difficult without closure.
The police department is asking anyone who has information on Alan Jr.’s whereabouts to call officer Adam Cho at 326-4646, ext. 296 or the department’s non-emergency number at 935-3311. Meanwhile, his car and other bills still need paying and memorial services haven’t yet been planned.
“At this point, we don’t know what to do,” Marina said.