Former CU CEO Cliff Diaz; the Million-Dollar Man

HILO, Hi. – Cliff Diaz, the former OnPoint CU CEO who raised waves around the country with his controversial million-dollar-plus salary, announced Friday he is donating $1 million to his high school alma mater, the only Catholic school on Hawaii’s Big Island. The $1 million gift will be used to help fund athletics and academics at St. Joseph School, where the recently retired Diaz graduated in 1967. Diaz, who built OnPoint, formerly Portland Teachers CU into the state’s largest credit union, retired a year ago after 10 years in the $2 billion credit union’s corner office. It was Diaz’s 2003 pay of $1.6 million that caused a major controversy among members in 2004, when it was publicly disclosed and gave fuel to the bankers’ local campaign against the credit union tax exemption. The gift from Diaz, who moved back to Hawaii after last year’s retirement, was the largest ever to the Big Island’s only Catholic school, which was founded in 1869. Diaz, the son of a Hilo banker, left Hawaii and moved to the mainland because jobs were scarce on the island.