Bill Kwon, one of Hawaii’s most esteemed sports reporters and editors, died today of natural causes at Nuuanu Hale, where he had lived for the past year. He was 81.

“Just had dinner with him last night,” said longtime colleague and friend Ann Miller. “He was good, as engaged as ever with an amazing memory and sense of humor.”

Kwon’s association with Honolulu newspapers started on Dec. 7, 1941, when he sold the Star-Bulletin on the street the day of the Pearl Harbor attack.

After graduation from Roosevelt High and the University of Manoa, he was hired as a clerk by the Star-Bulletin in 1959. Kwon eventually rose to full-time sports reporter, and then sports editor around 1980. He was later the paper’s lead sports columnist until 2001 when he retired and started writing a golf column for the Honolulu Advertiser until a final retirement in 2010.

Golf was one of Kwon’s many passions. He covered it at all levels, as he did all other major sports beats in Hawaii — and some beyond. He covered multiple Super Bowls, the 1988 Olympics in Seoul and baseball spring training.

“If Bill Kwon was there, it was important,” said golf analyst Mark Rohlfing, in a Honolulu Star-Advertiser story written by Miller in 2010.

Kwon is survived by his sister Dee Kuwaye. Services are pending.