Richard Hadley, 80; Developer Owned the Liner United States

Richard Hadley, 80, a developer of major projects in the Pacific Northwest and Hawaii who also tried to renovate the luxury liner United States, died Tuesday of undisclosed causes in Honolulu.

Hadley’s projects included the Prince Kuhio in Honolulu and other large hotels and office towers in Seattle and Hawaii.

In 1978, he bought the United States for $5 million from the U.S. government. The largest, fastest and most luxurious ocean liner built in America when it made its maiden voyage from New York to Le Havre, France, in 1952, it had been sold to the federal government in 1972 as a hospital ship for troops.

Hadley wanted to spend millions on its renovation and use it on San Francisco-to-Hawaii cruises. The job proved too daunting financially, and Hadley’s company, United States Cruises Inc., went into bankruptcy in 1992. The vessel remains idle in a Philadelphia shipyard.

Hadley was a Seattle native who earned a civil and mechanical engineering degree from the University of Washington before flying with the Army Air Corps in Europe during World War II. He later earned a master’s degree in structural engineering and a doctorate in business.