page_title: Samuel Mills Damon
section_title: Legacy
hierarchical_section_title: Samuel Mills Damon / Life / Legacy
caption_attribution_description: English: Samuel Edward "Ned" Damon was born June 1, 1873. he was groomed to inherit the business empire of his father Samuel Mills Damon (1845–1924), but was stabbed to death on September 27, 1904.
context_page_description: Samuel Mills Damon was a businessman and politician in the Kingdom of Hawaii, through the Republic of Hawaii and into the Territory of Hawaii.
context_section_description: His son Samuel Edward "Ned" Damon graduated from Punahou and then Yale. He studied accounting in Glasgow, Scotland where he married Gertrude Valentine Marr MacKinnon, daughter of William Mackinnon, an accountant at McClelland, Mackinnon & Blyth, and Elisabeth 'Bessie' Kerr Mackinnon née Marr on January 17, 1899. They had four children, although one died young. He returned to work in the family bank, but was stabbed to death on September 27, 1904.
  After S. M. Damon died July 1, 1924, his estate (then estimated worth over US$250 million) was left in trust to his grandchildren. At one time it was the fourth largest private landowner in Hawaii.
  Son Henry Fowler Damon graduated from Yale; he married his brother Samuel's widow Gertrude, they had four children: Harriet Damon "Haku" Baldwin (1913–2003), Frances (Damon) Holt, Joan (Damon) Haig, and Henry E. Damon, and died December 19, 1926. Douglas Wilfred Damon died September 21, 1936.
  The property became very valuable as Honolulu was developed in the 20th century. Parts of Moanalua became Fort Kamehameha, Honolulu International Airport, Tripler Army Medical Center, Moanalua High School, the Salt Lake, Hawaii development, and Moanalua Gardens. 
  In 2003, the office buildings alone were sold to the Real estate investment trust HRPT for over $480 million.
  Trustees of the estate included retired General Frederick C. Weyand, great-grandson David M. Haig, former bank president Walter Dods, and local attorney Paul Mullin Ganley.
  His last surviving grandchild, Joan Damon Haig, died on November 9, 2004.
  The estate had about 20 beneficiaries with annual total income of over $34 million, as plans were made for its distribution.
  However, only one grandchild, (Samuel Renny Damon) survived from his son Samuel, while four descended from son Henry. A lawsuit was filed (appealed to the Supreme Court of Hawaii) to determine how to divide the shares: equal shares for each great-grandchild, five shares for each grandchild, or half for each set of descendants by his two children. The 1914 will had almost no punctuation in its ten pages.
  The US Supreme Court refused to hear the case, so the estate, estimated worth $900 million in 2006, was distributed with half to descendants of each son.
  The estate had bought Kahuku Ranch on Hawaiʻi island for $1.3 million in 1958 from James W. Glover.
  It is located on the southwest rift zone of Mauna Loa volcano, with headquarters at 19°3′17″N 155°41′29″W. 
  The estate sold about 116,000 acres (47,000 ha) of the ranch in 2003 to the US Government (with financing from the Nature Conservancy) to expand Hawaii Volcanoes National Park  for $22 million. It was the largest conservation land deal in Hawaii's history, enlarging the park by more than 50%. Some was sold for residences, and some remains as a tourist accommodation.
  In 2006 Damon's coin collection alone was auctioned off for $3,884,000 by Doyle New York. It included an 1876 proof set from the US centennial.
  In 2007, the estate donated a collection of artifacts to the Bernice P. Bishop Museum. Damon was a founding trustee of the museum.
caption: "Ned" Damon died in 1904
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