Claire Carmer Wright, who helped develop Kilohana Square, a pioneering conversion of industrial space in Kapahulu into inexpensive stores and work areas, has died.

Wright, 86, of Honolulu, died Sunday at Straub Hospital, said her son, James Wright.

Originally from Sonoma, Calif., her family was impoverished when her father died of injuries received in World War I.

"She worked on her grandparents' small farm and dairy," said James Wright. "She could milk a cow, saddle and ride a horse, and shoot animals preying on their livestock.

She was a high school valedictorian and attended the University of California at Berkeley on a Regent's Scholarship, "but concluded that talent, good grades and a degree would count for very little for a woman without family connections or wealth," said her son.

"She decided to leave in 1944 without a degree when a book was assigned in her literature class with portions left in the original language because they were 'too salacious' to be used in the presence of women. She learned enough Italian to translate those passages and handed them out."

She came to Hawai'i in 1947 and became a writer and researcher at the Pineapple Research Institute.

She met financier Chinn Ho, joined his Capital Investment in 1948 and began a career in Hawai'i real estate that lasted more than 50 years — interrupted by only by several years of living in Germany while her physician husband, Donald M. Wright, completed his military service. He died in 1963.

She developed Kilohana Square with two other women in 1971. It was a pioneering conversion of an industrial property into small owner-operated shops with crafts, art and antiques.

"She wanted people to have the chance to own their own businesses and not be employees of someone else. They needed space to work — but also to retail from. The converted industrial space was cheap enough to do both," James Wright said.

"It was her joy when businesses that started at Kilohana Square succeeded in generating a following big enough that they could move to the high-traffic malls. It was an incubator, it gave people a chance."

Wright was an active volunteer: She taught prison inmates; was a literacy tutor; and helped organize visits by therapy dogs.

She is survived by sons, James and Daniel; two granddaughters, and nieces and nephews. Rites were held at National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific. Donations may be made to the Hawaiian Human Society.