Ernest Albrecht, a former Pan American World Airways executive and a local advocate in the fight against polio, died yesterday. He was 90.

The prominent airline official was well known for his own fight against polio and his subsequent work with local nonprofits as an advocate for treatment and vaccination of the disease.

Albrecht had been battling post-polio syndrome for the past year and a half, said Kathleen Albrecht, his wife of 61 years.

"He was such a wonderful man. He was so active in so many different things," she said.

A month after his diagnosis and treatment for polio in Honolulu in 1951, Albrecht went to the Kabat-Kaiser Institute in Santa Monica, Calif., for physical therapy. Four months later, news reports recalled his arrival back in Honolulu and how he walked down the Pan Am ramp at the Honolulu Airport on crutches.

His youngest daughter, Linda Goeas, said her father told her stories of how he fought the disease.

"This was so typical of my father: The doctors told him ... he would never walk again. You don't say never to my father. He was determined to walk again," she said.

Albrecht was so grateful for the help from the local chapter of the National Foundation of Infantile Paralysis he promised himself he would do everything he could to help the agency.

For several years Albrecht headed the March of Dimes in Honolulu, which was then sponsored by the Honolulu Chapter of the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis. He was also named Honolulu's "Father of the Year" by the Honolulu Chamber of Commerce for his work with the nonprofit organization.

Albrecht also was past president of the Rotary Club of Honolulu and the Honolulu Community Chest and a member of the Honolulu Chamber of Commerce.

"From the day I was born he was always involved in community service. He never wanted anything back in return. Just give, give, give, that's who he was," Goeas said.

Born in West Orange, N.J., on July 7, 1916, Albrecht worked in the airline industry for most of his life. He became the chief sales executive of Pan Am in Hawai'i in 1950 and served until 1972. He then served in reduced capacity as the director of special projects for Pan Am until he retired in 1981 from the airline.

Former Honolulu Mayor Frank Fasi named Albrecht his "Personal Representative and Official Honolulu Greeter" in 1973. Fasi had called Albrecht one of Honolulu's "best-known and best-liked" citizens. He was the second of only two official city greeters to be named. The first was Duke Kahanamoku.

Albrecht is survived by his wife, Kathleen, and his three daughters, Barbara Weber, Debra Pace and Linda Goeas.

Services for Albrecht will be Wednesday at 4 p.m. at St. Clement's Episcopal Church on 1515 Wilder Ave.