OHA keeps going
as Beamer would want
The board will meet tonight,
By Pat Omandam
two days after fellow trustee
Billie Beamer died
Star-BulletinWhen the Office of Hawaiian Affairs trustees meet tonight on Molokai, they will do so because trustee Billie Kawaloa Beamer would have wanted them to. OHA Vice Chairwoman Haunani Apoliona today said carrying on the board's work for the Hawaiian people would be the best way to remember the businesswoman, golfer, novelist and trustee, who died Saturday night at Queen's Hospital.
"My observation of trustee Beamer was that she worked long hours, and was dedicated to her job," said Apoliona, who offered condolences to Beamer's children, Manono and Milton Jr.
"I would say her loss is like losing a family member as well," Apoliona said.
Beamer, 70, was hospitalized last December for treatment of an infection.
Friends and family members are planning the funeral.
The OHA board is meeting today and tomorrow on Molokai.
Former OHA trustee Kinau Boyd Kamalii said her longtime friend will be missed.
"Hawaii has really lost a true Hawaiian leader as far as I'm concerned," Kamalii said.
"It is beyond reproach in the fact that she really cared about the beneficiaries of OHA, wanting to keep them informed," she said.
Winona Rubin, who recalled Beamer's work in the mid-1970s as head of the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands, echoed the sentiment.
"It is a loss of a voice in the Hawaiian community," Rubin said.
Beamer earned a reputation as a watchdog of OHA by investigating whether trustees violated state law and mismanaged OHA money.
OHA has a $15 million annual operating budget and an investment portfolio valued at $262 million.
Beamer filed complaints questioning the actions of fellow OHA board members in December.
Beamer described herself as an independent who wanted to involve more native Hawaiians in OHA activities.
On the day she was sworn in, Beamer said, "We need to consult more with our beneficiaries. Even though we are elected, we are not a legislative body, we are a trust. And we must keep that trust with our people."
Beamer worked as a producer of public TV programs, including a public-access show on which she openly criticized the OHA's actions.
She wrote "The Royal Torch," a local bestseller detailing the nature and history of Hawaii's ruling alii.
Beamer was a former federal master to apportion voting districts, a 1980 decennial census manager, director of Hawaiian Home Lands and a city deputy parks director. She was also a 1990 GOP lieutenant governor nominee.
