While Raymond A. Watt is being memorialized in California for the indelible imprint he left on the physical landscape of Southern California, friends and associates in Hawai'i are mourning the loss of the affable, early-rising home builder whose balance of sound business sense and social conscience also left its mark on the Islands.

Watt died Tuesday in Rancho Mirage, Calif., at the age of 90.

"He was just the most honorable, straightforward guy," said longtime friend and business associate John Michael White, president of Hawai'i Land Co. "In all the years I've known him, I never heard him shout or raise his voice. He was always courteous. I've never heard anyone say anything negative about him — no gripes, no complaints."

In more than 60 years in the real estate business, Watt built more than 100,000 single-family homes, office buildings, mobile home parks, hotels and industrial and retail centers, and in so doing helped to define the Southern California look.

He was among the first to develop condominiums in California, helped to popularize the now-ubiquitous strip-mall and designed residential communities that integrated lifestyle amenities such as golf courses, tennis courts and lakes. He was also the first to develop time-share projects on the West Coast.

With partner George Isaacs, Watt also cast a long shadow in Hawai'i.

Among numerous projects on O'ahu, Maui and the Big Island, Watt built Villages 2 and 3 of the state's Villages of Kapolei affordable housing project.

Originally selected to build only Village 2, Watt — who impressed Housing Finance and Development Corp. officials with his direct, no-exaggeration bid for the project — took on the second project when Japanese developer Gensiro Kawamoto, his stylistic opposite, pulled out of the project.

Watt began his career during the post-World War II housing shortage, naming his company Day and Night Construction to reflect his hours. As White recalls, Watt would remain a tireless worker until the end.

"If you wanted to meet with Ray, you had to do it at 5 a.m.," White said. "He liked to do that before the phones started ringing."

In 1969, Watt was appointed assistant secretary of Housing and Urban Development. Upon his retirement, President Richard Nixon presented him with a specially made cartoon depicting a bleary-eyed Nixon and wife Pat greeting Watt at their front door. The caption read: "Ray, when I say 6 o'clock, I mean P.M.!"

Watt was inducted into the California Homebuilding Hall of Fame in 1987.

Watt is survived by his third wife, Gwendolyn; daughters Sally Oxley and Janet Van Huisen; son J. Scott Watt (now chairman of the board of Watt Companies); seven grandchildren and several great-grandchildren.