Airai View Hotel. The hotel eventually opened in July 2000. In 1984, he built a private power plant in Airai with two electric generators, which he renovated after South Korean electrical engineers inspected it in 1996. On March 4, 1985, Tmetuchl opened Palau's first local bank in Koror. While serving as governor of Airai in the 1980s, he led projects to create a clan house and four modern-style bais, or a men's meetinghouses. In 1986, he constructed twelve houses in an Airai hamlet using imported Chinese labor. He designed and constructed Airai State Elementary School, which he opened and dedicated on March 6, 1989. Inspired by the Seventh-day Adventist Clinic on Guam, Tmetuchl funded the transformation of a building into a similar clinic. The clinic, located in the Ngerbeched hamlet of Koror, opened on May 26, 1991. In 1997, he led a construction project that built a Sabbath School building adjacent to the Seventh-day Adventist Church. His net worth during this year was estimated to be over $30 million. The next year he donated some of his land and money for the construction of a new Seventh-day Adventist Church in Ngchesar. He died in 1999 while the church was still under construction. Death and legacy Roman Tmetuchl started feeling ill in January 1999. His health gradually declined in the following months and he died on July 1, 1999, of pancreatic cancer. He was a member of the Seventh-day Adventist Church and would read his Bible every day. The President of Palau, Kuniwo Nakamura, proclaimed a state of national mourning for Tmetuchl. On April 11, 2006, Palauan senators Reklai, Koshiba, Seid, Diaz, and Dengokl on April 11, 2006 proposed to rename Palau International Airport as the Roman Tmetuchl International Airport. The senate passed this resolution on May 4, 2006, which stated that, "The Roman Tmetuchl International Airport is a fitting name for Palau's international airport due to Mr. Tmetuchl's numerous years of valuable services he provided to the Republic and for the assistance he provided in developing the airport." In 2008, the Tmetuchl family built a chapel at Belau National Hospital to honor and continue Roman's legacy. References External links Photographs 1956–7, c. 1970 at the Trust Territory of the Pacific Archives, hosted by the University of Hawaii 1926 births 1999 deaths 20th-century Palauan politicians Construction in Oceania People from Koror Palauan businesspeople Palauan male sprinters Palauan Seventh-day Adventists Members of