Chinn Ho
From rice fields
By Treena Shapiro
to high finance
Special to the Star-BulletinTHE Hawaii business community owes a debt to local financier Chinn Ho, a self-made multimillionaire whose rise from a rice field to real-estate development broke down racial barriers for Asian businessmen.
Born Feb. 26, 1904, Ho came of age at a time when an all-white male hierarchy filled the boardrooms of all major companies, the memberships in the most prestigious clubs and the management positions for large landed estates. Ho, the grandson of a Chinese laborer, changed all that.
He was the first Asian American to sit on the board of directors at a "Big Five" firm, Theo H. Davies & Co. He was the first Asian to manage a large landed estate, the Robinson Estate. He was the first Asian president of the Honolulu Stock Exchange and the first Asian head of the Hawaii Visitors Bureau. As stadium board president, Ho helped bring Class AAA baseball here.
Ho followed two maxims in his business transactions: "Kill them with kindness in competition" and "Achieve success by contributing to the success of others." Guided by these principles, Ho and his friends pooled their assets to form Capital Investment Co. In 1947, on behalf of this group, Ho made the largest land buy by an Asian in Hawaii -- the Waianae Sugar Co., 9,000 acres of land in Makaha Valley, with help from Bishop Bank. Over the next few years, the group took in $4 million by subdividing lots and selling off 4,000 acres.
When the Star-Bulletin was up for sale in 1961, Ho, then on the board of directors at the Honolulu Advertiser, seized the opportunity to organize a group of multi-ethnic buyers and became the first Asian to be a principal owner of a major daily newspaper. When his group sold the Star-Bulletin to the Gannett chain in 1971, Ho became chairman of Gannett Pacific Corp.
Ho died on May 12, 1987.
UH president led
By Susan Kreifels
expansion in 1960s
Star-BulletinTHOMAS H. Hamilton called the University of Hawaii "an empire on which the concrete never sets." As its seventh president, he led the UH through the boom years of higher education across the nation. Under his 1963-1968 leadership, new buildings soared and enrollment doubled. Hamilton, who came from State University of New York, brought in prestigious professors and research grants. Hamilton Library was named after him.
He also was known as a defender of free speech in the days of protest against the Vietnam War. Ironically, it was such an issue that led to his abrupt resignation.
Oliver Lee was an untenured assistant professor of political science and a war protester, advising a small group of students called the Student Partisan Alliance. On June 1, 1967, the Honolulu Star-Bulletin quoted a mimeographed manifesto from the group telling students to destroy U.S. military weapons, "eliminate" officers and leak classified secrets to prostitutes. Lee said he warned the group of possible legal consequences but didn't try to dissuade it, nor did he tell the administration. Some in the community were outraged.
Lee had received a letter on May 29, 1967, that he would receive tenure. On June 5, the administration withdrew the offer.
The political science professor appealed, and a special Faculty Senate committee found that the administration and regents did not have reasonable cause to discharge Lee and had failed to follow due process.
Hamilton resigned, taking responsibility. The community off and on campus petitioned him to stay.
Months after his resignation, Hamilton became head of the then-Hawaii Visitors Bureau.
He died of lung cancer on Christmas 1979.
Lawmaker went
By Shirley Iida
to bat for women
Star-BulletinINDEPENDENT, tenacious and courageous are words often used to describe U.S. Rep. Patsy T. Mink, Hawaii's 21-year veteran in Congress.
Mink, 71, now in her 11th term representing Hawaii's 2nd Congressional District -- rural Oahu and the neighbor islands -- has been an outspoken advocate for government spending on social and educational programs, stricter regulation of the environment and greater equality for women and minorities.
A liberal Democrat and strong supporter of organized labor, she's fought for women's rights much of her life.
Mink began her journey into politics as student body president and valedictorian at Maui High School. After graduating from the University of Hawaii in 1948, she was turned away by a dozen medical schools because she was female. She went on to earn a law degree from the University of Chicago Law School and sought work with law firms in Chicago and Hawaii -- but no one hired her.
Despite setbacks, she opened a private law practice in Hawaii and became the first woman attorney of Japanese ancestry to practice law in the Territory of Hawaii. She then taught business law at UH and served as an attorney for the Territorial Legislature.
Mink was elected to Congress in 1965 and served until 1977. In subsequent years, she was national president of the Americans for Democratic Action and a member of the Honolulu City Council. She returned to Congress in 1990.
Among her most notable achievements, Mink co-authored legislation known as "Title IX -- Prohibition of Sex Discrimination" in 1972. Together with Congresswoman Edith Green of Oregon, they drafted and succeeded in passing the legislation, which mandated equal opportunities for women in sports and education.
