1. William Sumio Naito was an American businessman, civic leader and philanthropist in Portland, Oregon, US He was an enthusiastic advocate for investment in downtown Portland, both private and public, and is widely credited for helping to reverse a decline in the area in the 1970s through acquiring and renovating derelict or aging buildings and encouraging others to invest in downtown and the central city.
Bill Naito commonly went by the name Bill, as opposed to William.
William S Naito was born in Portland in 1925, to Hide and Fukiye Naito, who had emigrated from Japan in 1912.
Bill Naito's parents owned a curio shop in downtown Portland, and young Bill spent much time helping his father at the shop.
Bill Naito was a 16-year-old sophomore at Portland's former Washington High School at the time.
In Salt Lake City, Bill Naito raised chickens in the back yard to support the family, designing and building the coops himself.
Bill Naito served in Military Intelligence in the post-war occupation of Japan, as a translator, before being honorably discharged in 1946 at the rank of staff sergeant.
Bill Naito returned to Portland to attend Reed College, graduating Phi Beta Kappa in 1949 with a degree in economics.
Bill Naito met Millicent Sonley in Chicago, and they married in 1951.
Bill returned again to Portland in 1952 to join his brother Sam Naito in running their family-owned import business, which in 1958 was incorporated as Norcrest China Company.
Bill Naito is credited with coining the name "Old Town" for Portland's Skid Road district, in order to improve the area's image, and one way he publicized the name was by having it painted in large letters on the side of a water tower atop the building Norcrest China occupied, the White Stag building.
Ultimately, the Bill Naito brothers acquired and renovated more than 20 historic buildings in Portland.
Bill Naito led a successful effort to plant more than 10,000 trees in the city, as founder of the Street Tree Advisory Committee, which became Portland's Urban Forestry Commission and which he chaired from 1976 until his death.
Bill Naito was co-founder and chairman of Artquake, an annual arts festival held in downtown from the 1980s until 1995.
Bill Naito fought for adequate funding to keep Multnomah County's public libraries in operation.
Bill Naito was widely recognized for taking on ventures that were at least as beneficial to the community as they were potentially moneymaking.
Bill Naito lobbied in favor of a proposal for historic Union Station to be acquired by the city, which came to fruition in 1987.
Bill and Sam Naito were jointly honored with the "First Citizen" award for 1982 by the Portland Association of Realtors.
Bill Naito helped convince city officials to embrace what became Portland Vintage Trolley, which started service in 1991.
Bill and Sam Naito went as far as to purchase six old American-style trolley cars being retired in Portugal in the early 1980s with the intention of donating them for restoration for this planned service, and one of those cars was on display next to the Galleria for ten months starting in June 1985 to publicize the plans.
However, TriMet decided that buying new faux-vintage trolleys would be more cost-effective than rebuilding the Portuguese cars and allow larger per-car capacity, so the Bill Naito-owned streetcars were not used and eventually were sold to other places, such as Memphis' Main Street Trolley.
Bill Naito was president of the non-profit Portland Vintage Trolley, Inc from its formation in 1987 until his death in 1996.
Notwithstanding his willingness to pay to keep the historic sign functioning, and other community-minded "gifts" to fellow citizens, in his personal activities Bill Naito was "notoriously frugal".
Bill Naito was described as a "gregarious workaholic" who was content to work at an old "battered desk" in an open office space shared with his employees.
Bill Naito served on the boards of several organizations and entities, including the following:.
Bill Naito was finance chair for the Oregon Nikkei Endowment, an organization devoted to preserving and sharing the history of Japanese Americans in Oregon.
Bill Naito died in Portland of cancer on May 8,1996, only eight days after being diagnosed with the disease.
The new name, "Bill Naito Parkway", was applied to the section of Front Avenue south of NW 15th Avenue and the Fremont Bridge.
Bill Naito Parkway is an arterial street running along the eastern edge of downtown and alongside Tom McCall Waterfront Park, passing some of the historic districts Bill Naito helped to preserve.
Bill Naito graduated from Reed in 1949 and was elected to the college's board of trustees in 1974.