UH endowment project
named after Inouyes
The $2 million project will
seek high-profile figures
|
After nearly a decade of planning and just a month of fund raising, the University of Hawaii Foundation has $1.6 million in pledges toward a $2 million endowment that will honor U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye and bring high-profile leaders to teach at UH-Manoa and the law school.
The Dan and Maggie Inouye Distinguished Chair in Democratic Ideals will be filled by high-profile politicians, journalists or professors, who will spend a year or a semester at the university's Manoa campus.
Inouye said this is the first time he has allowed his name to be used for a permanent tribute.
"I've had suggestions of this nature in the past and I've turned them down," Inouye said yesterday. "But I felt that Maggie and I are graduates of the University of Hawaii so it would seem, in a way, appropriate. ... I must tell you that it was heartwarming to see so many respond."
Donna Vuchinich, president and chief executive officer of the University of Hawaii Foundation, said the project was dreamed up in 1995 with the help of then-UH president Kenneth Mortimer. It took a decade to work out the details and find people committed to seeing it to fruition.
In late May, retired banker and longtime Democratic Party supporter Walter Dods was asked to find donors for the chair. Within 30 days, he raised $1.6 million from companies and individuals, putting $50,000 into the pot himself.
Others who donated include Mortimer, interim UH President David McClain, Hawaiian TelCom, Norwegian Cruise Line Ltd. and Hawaiian Electric Co. Bank of Hawaii and First Hawaiian Bank both gave $200,000 to the endowment.
"The senator has avoided having anything named after him for a long time," Dods said, in a telephone interview from the mainland. Last year, for example, when a fleet of Pearl Harbor tugs was named to honor each member of Hawaii's congressional delegation, Inouye asked that his boat be christened "Kaimana Hila," after the unofficial song of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team.
"Maybe I'm old and sensitive," Inouye said, "but I hate to have people suggest that I work hard for a certain project because I wanted my name emblazoned on a wall. In this case, you won't see my name put on some plaque. It will be administered by the university."
Inouye and his wife both received their bachelor's degrees from the University of Hawaii. Also, Maggie Inouye was a UH speech and linguistics instructor for more than a decade and the couple have long supported UH events and programs.
"I think he recognized that this (the endowed chair) was pretty special," Dods said. "He's done so much for Hawaii. ... It's a testimony of how people feel about him."
The university has about 20 endowed chair faculty positions. Law School Dean Aviam Soifer said he wants to recruit "major figures in public life from around the country" for the Inouye chair.
"They could be retired Supreme Court justices, retired journalists, people who just have things to share throughout the university and throughout Hawaii," he said, adding that he has a few people in mind for the position's first year, but that it's too early to name names.
The seat, a joint appointment in the university's American Studies department and William S. Richardson School of Law, could be filled for the first time as early as spring 2006.
The salary has yet to be determined.
Vuchinich said the university still has about $400,000 more to raise to ensure that the endowment will last in perpetuity. Over the coming months, the foundation plans to solicit donations from Hawaii's Japanese community and UH alumni on the mainland.
E-mail to City Desk
[News] [Business] [Features] [Sports] [Editorial] [Do It Electric!]
[Classified Ads] [Search] [Subscribe] [Info] [Letter to Editor]
[Feedback]
