[1] In the 1980s and 1990s he was one of Portland's most esteemed business and civic leaders,[1][2][3][4] honored with "dozens" of awards[5] and holding positions on several volunteer boards, commissions, and advisory committees.

In order to avoid internment, Hide Naito moved the family to Salt Lake City, Utah, to live with relatives there.

[1] In Salt Lake City, Naito raised chickens in the back yard to support the family, designing and building the coops himself.

[7] After graduating from Granite High School,[7] Naito joined the U.S. Army in 1944, and was a member of the 442nd Infantry Regiment during World War II.

[5] Bill returned again to Portland in 1952 to join his brother Sam Naito in running their family-owned import business, which in 1958 was incorporated as Norcrest China Company.

[2] Bill Naito is credited with coining the name "Old Town" for Portland's Skid Road district, in order to improve the area's image,[9] and one way he publicized the name was by having it painted in large letters on the side of a water tower atop the building Norcrest China occupied, the White Stag building.

[5] Among them was the Merchants' Hotel, built in the 1880s, which the Naitos' Skidmore Development Company restored and converted into mixed office and retail use in 1968.

"[12] One of their highest-profile such investments came in 1975, when they purchased the Olds, Wortman & King building, a six-story former Rhodes department store, occupying a full downtown block, which had closed the year before.

An article in The Oregonian three months after the Galleria's opening referred to this project as being possibly "the most exciting development in downtown [Portland] merchandising in several decades.

"[13] At the same time, Bill Naito worked to convince others of his vision that downtown Portland could become a thriving, attractive place, if given attention and investment.

"[10] In the early 1980s he built the 300-unit McCormick Pier Apartments along the Willamette River waterfront, just north of Old Town, replacing a derelict warehouse district and providing needed middle-income housing in an area where other developers had concluded it could not succeed.

At the time of its start, Portland Vintage Trolley was one of only a few urban heritage streetcar services in the country, whereas similar operations now exist in more than 15 U.S. cities.

[15] At the 1999 groundbreaking for the line, PSI board president Donald Magnusen commented that the streetcar project was a vision of the late Bill Naito.

For many years until 2004, the main offices of Norcrest China were located in the 1907-built White Stag Building, at the intersection of West Burnside Street and what was then Front Avenue, in Portland's Old Town.

"[26] Eight years later, in 1997, the sign's wording was changed from White Stag to the name of a Naito-owned brand, the Made in Oregon retail store chain.

Notwithstanding his willingness to pay to keep the historic sign functioning, and other community-minded "gifts" to fellow citizens, in his personal activities Naito was "notoriously frugal".

[10] Despite his financial success, "Bill Naito continued to drive old cars and displayed few of the trappings of wealth," The Oregonian wrote in its 1996 obituary.

His fundraising through the non-profit made possible the creation of a memorial in Portland, the Japanese-American Historical Plaza, which opened in 1990 in Tom McCall Waterfront Park.

[4] After several years of trying to work out their business differences, the two groups decided in 2005 to settle their long-running dispute by dividing the assets of the now-$100 million empire, H. Naito Corporation.