Advertisement - Click to support our sponsors.

Velma Santos, former
Maui councilwoman,
dies at 69

OBITUARIES

---

By Gary T. Kubota
Star-Bulletin

WAILUKU -- Even after leaving politics, former Maui County Councilwoman Velma Santos worked as a leader and community volunteer on the Valley Isle.

Maui Mayor James Apana fondly remembers Santos in the rain, holding an umbrella as she checked in children for the annual Christmas parade in Wailuku.

"She was always in the forefront, the first to volunteer. She always led by example," Apana said.

Santos died of complications from a heart attack Monday night while at Queen's Medical Center on Oahu. She was 69.

Santos once recalled how she had difficulty finding a job because she was a woman, even after graduating with a college degree in biology in 1952.

The experience galvanized her commitment to break through social barriers and eventually enter politics.

She worked as an elementary teacher for more than 20 years while raising four children, and was first elected as a Republican to the state House in 1974.

After she was unseated in 1976, she accepted an offer from Democratic Maui Mayor Elmer Cravalho to serve as director of his county Department of Human Concerns.

Cravalho said he appointed Santos because she was "tremendously able" and had "unquestioned honesty."

"She had good organization skills. She was good -- very, very good," he said.

"She was really a very straight-forward person. Whatever she had to say, you knew right away."

Santos, noting her liberal views and disagreement with the Republican Party, became a Democrat and served on the Maui County Council from 1982 to 1990.

She ran unsuccessfully in a three-way Democratic race for mayor in 1990.

Santos served as chairwoman of the Democratic Party of Maui and later became the chairwoman of the Wailuku Main Street Association, a group involved in revitalizing Wailuku town.

County Planning Director John Min said Santos played a key role in preserving not only Wailuku, but other small towns on Maui.

"Velma was very committed to small-town planning and the preservation of our local heritage," Min said. "She was a major force in that."

Santos also served as a resource for incoming Council members and conducted a class on parliamentary procedure.

"Many members in the community and county government looked to her for guidance," said Councilwoman Charmaine Tavares. "It's a great loss for the community and county government."

Susanne Hotta, owner of Gilbert's Formal Wear in Wailuku, said she loved the way Santos ran a meeting.

"She was efficient, well organized and very intelligent," Hotta said. "You don't see a woman like that too much."

Santos is survived by her husband, Louis, and four children.

Services have been tentatively scheduled for Sunday.