MILILANI MAUKA — Only a few people in this community know who Bob Berry is but many appreciate what he does on his daily morning walks.

Berry, who'll be 75 in July, is familiar to passing motorists as the man — dressed most days in an aloha shirt, shorts and headband, and carrying a stick he calls a "pick slider" — who picks up roadside trash on his 90-minute walk from Maka'ika'i to 'Ainamakua streets, along Mehe'ula Parkway, up Ukuwai Street and back home.

Except for when he's on vacation, Berry has been doing it every day for three years, rain or shine.

"I know when he's not around because I see the trash on the roadway," said Mililani resident Ron Ribellia, supervisor of McDonald's Restaurants of Mililani and Mililani Mauka. "I know other people in Mililani who do the same thing but not every day like him. I think he's great and I always tell him, 'Whatever you want (at McDonald's), it's on the house,' but he never accepts anything.

"A lot of people see him, and it's unfortunate people who throw the trash that see him, too, don't appreciate what he's doing," Ribellia added.

Sean Maeyoshimoto, 22, who usually works the graveyard shift at Tesoro Hawaii's Mililani Mauka station on Ukuwai Street, was surprised to see Berry gathering trash in front of the store when he worked the day shift recently.

"I was shocked to see him out there in the parking lot," Maeyoshimoto said. "I thought, wow, this guy is really nice to be doing something I get paid to do."

Jerry Franks, a Tesoro Mililani Mauka employee, has watched Berry pick up trash at the site for as long as he's been doing it.

"I don't know his name; I just see him picking up trash," Franks said. "But I know he must be very special because people just don't do things like that. I see a lot of people throwing trash that he comes to pick up. He says nothing, expects nothing in return."

At its March meeting, the Mililani Mauka/Launani Valley Neighborhood Board honored Berry for his contribution to the community, and McDonald's, Tesoro Hawaii and Castle & Cooke Homes Hawaii presented him with gifts.

Overcome by emotion, Berry confided that the recognition, though appreciated, makes him uncomfortable.

Despite his visibility, few know anything about Berry, who walks not so much for exercise but to "loosen up" the stiffness in his hips, shoulder and back caused by arthritis.

He was into his second week of walking three years ago when Berry decided to do "something constructive" by picking up trash.

"It was the least I could do to keep the place looking nice, and I enjoy doing it," said the Middletown, Mo., native, who moved to Hawai'i in 1969 and worked for 25 years at the Marine base in Kane'ohe as a meat cutter.

Berry usually fills two or three plastic grocery bags with trash daily. McDonald's allows him to dump the bags in its trash bin. Berry then walks a little farther to the recycling bin, where he tosses bottles and cans.

"At first, I think people thought I was a bum or a damn nut, so they were leery of me," Berry said. "People are nicer now."

Berry uses a stick with a nail at the end to pick up trash.

"I got seven of 'em, one for every day, and I sharpen 'em every week," he said. "If I had to stoop down to pick up everything, I wouldn't need that much exercise cause I'd be cripple."

He's found some strange things on the ground.

"One day I found a billfold with $150," Berry said. "There was ID but no phone number."

He spent half a day tracking down the owner of the billfold, a 19-year-old man who lives in Mililani but not close to where the billfold was found. "He was mighty tickled and was a good kid," Berry said. "But I had to give him a lecture on keeping a phone number to contact someone in case of an emergency."

Berry has found discarded shoes, toys, an unopened six-pack of Heineken, even telephones —not cell phones — on the roadway. And, of course, coins.

"Ain't nothing to find a penny a day," he said. Berry puts the coins he finds into a can, which he gives to The Salvation Army.

He's made an impression by his actions.

Doug Mossman recalled that while driving his 7-year-old granddaughter, Tehani Mossman, to Mililani Mauka Elementary School one morning, he rolled down the window in his car while holding a piece of paper in his hand.

"I was looking out the window and my granddaughter says, 'You're not going to throw that out, are you?' and I told her, 'No,' " Mossman said. "She says, 'Oh, good, because that man has to go pick it up.' "

Tehani was looking at Berry walking down Mehe'ula Parkway, doing his thing. She had seen him before on the ride to school but until that moment, her grandfather had never noticed Berry before.

Over the next few weeks, Mossman often wondered about the man he now saw every day picking up trash.

"I thought maybe he worked for Castle & Cooke but he wasn't wearing a uniform," said Mossman, who finally introduced himself to Berry. "Everybody notices him but nobody knows him. It's extremely refreshing to meet someone performing a real good community service and not looking for a reward. He's obviously had a great effect on kids, who know he's there."

Berry, who moved to Florida for eight years after his retirement in 1995 and returned to Hawai'i three years ago, enjoys fishing, gardening and traveling. He and his wife, Emiko, who have been married 53 years, have visited all 50 states.

Taking morning walks doesn't come easy for Berry.

"When I get up, it ain't pleasurable because I'm sore and stiff," he said. "I have to push myself to get going, especially when it's raining like it has been." If he doesn't walk to get loose, he knows he'll have a miserable day.

"So every day is a good day for me," he said. "I've been lucky because I've never missed a meal and I feel like I'm healthy."

Reach Rod Ohira at rohira@honoluluadvertiser.com.