William F. Quinn, 1919-2006, political pioneer

Many respected Hawaii's first elected governor

WILLIAM F. QUINN, the son of a shoe leather salesman who was Hawaii's last territorial governor, and its first elected governor, died Monday night. He was 87.

Quinn was a constant force in the state Republican Party and one of the architects of modern Hawaii. At 38, he was Hawaii's youngest governor.

"Dad was one of the most well-loved politicians in Hawaii," recalled his son Gregory Quinn yesterday.

Until just two months ago, Quinn was a regular for lunch at the Pacific Club in downtown Honolulu. He broke his hip recently in a fall and his health declined, his son said. Quinn died of natural causes at the Kahala Nui assisted-living center, Gregory Quinn said.

STAR BULLETIN FILE PHOTO William Quinn takes the oath of office as the first governor of the State of Hawaii from State Supreme Court Associate Justice Masaji Marumoto. CLICK FOR LARGE

"He was the ultimate breadwinner and sacrificed everything for the welfare of his children. He put seven kids through private school and college and all the while building up our ideals -- maintaining high ideals," Gregory Quinn said.

John Henry Felix, who served as Quinn's chief of staff during his first term as governor, called Quinn "incisive and a man of tremendous integrity."

"He was a very inspirational leader and was faced with the monumental task of taking more than 100 departments and reducing them to 18 when Hawaii became a state," Felix recalled.

"The most important thing was the transformation of Hawaii from territorial status to statehood and he did it with great skill," Felix said yesterday.

Longtime friend Robert Fujimoto said, "I think for him, the hardest part was the formation of the state government, the constitution, the actual setting-up of a new government."

"He wanted to know everything about the government," Fujimoto, president of HPM Building, said in a 1995 interview. "He was really concerned that as the first governor he wanted the transition from territory to state to be a stabilizing factor."

Born July 13, 1919, in Rochester, N.Y., Quinn was a World War II veteran who graduated from Harvard Law School in 1947. He and his wife, Nancy, came to Honolulu after he was offered a job with Garner Anthony's law firm.

Quinn was also a talented singer who loved the theater. When he started college, he was torn between studying law and trying out for Broadway productions. An adviser suggested he study law and keep acting and singing as a vocation. When he became active in politics, he was able to combine both.

He was an enthusiastic campaigner, first active in local precinct elections.

Quinn would walk his precinct, which just after the war stretched from Kahala to Waimanalo. Aided by his ability to sing Hawaiian songs, he was a popular draw for the Republican ticket.

"When he came to Hawaii, he fell in love with Hawaiian songs," Fujimoto said. "He is the one who really made 'Ke Kali Nei Au,' the Hawaiian wedding song, popular."

Republican leaders found him a popular speaker after a notable Lincoln Day speech Quinn gave in 1949, in which he warned the GOP not to become complacent.

"The possibility that the Republican Party might become the minority party must never be discounted," he said.

As it turned out, Quinn was Hawaii's last Republican governor until Gov. Linda Lingle was elected in 2002.

Lingle lauded Quinn as an "elder statesman who many looked to for guidance and mentorship."

STAR-BULLETIN / 1957 The inaugural procession moves toward the bandstand for the swearing-in of the Territory of Hawaii's last appointed governor, William Quinn. In the lead is Republican Sen. Wilfred C. Tsukiyama, followed by Interior Secretary Fred A. Seaton, Territorial Republican Chairman Edward C. Bryan and Quinn. CLICK FOR LARGE

"Governor Quinn played a pivotal role in our transition from a territory to America's 50th state," she said.

Quinn's first attempt at elected politics ended in failure as he lost a 1956 territorial senate race, but he was appointed to the statehood commission. In 1957, President Dwight D. Eisenhower named the 38-year-old Quinn as governor of the Territory of Hawaii.

After Hawaii became a state in 1959, Quinn ran for governor and beat congressional delegate John A. Burns by 4,000 votes.

Viewed by today's events, Quinn's governorship was remarkably visionary, as he urged land-use planning, called for a planning commission and decried the overbuilding of Waikiki.

"You could see what was going to happen in Waikiki, and I wanted desperately to try to control that," he said in 1991.

In August 1959, he addressed the first state legislative session in Hawaii, telling the assembled legislators that statehood would be "the most brilliant chapter in the story of Hawaii."

Two years later, Quinn lost to Democrat John Burns. Quinn's campaign was damaged when his lieutenant governor, James Kealoha, turned against him and opposed him in the primary.

Fujimoto, who helped the campaign, said Quinn's own open nature hurt him in politics.

"He ran too much of a straightforward office, and maybe he didn't tell people what he was trying to do," he said. "His decisions were purely on the basis of what was good for the people. Most of the people around him were nonpolitical."

Quinn returned to his private law practice. In 1964 he joined Dole Co. and was named president the following year.

In April 1972, he returned to practicing law. His last major political outing was his 1976 run for the U.S. Senate. He lost and retired.

Quinn remained a vital community member, serving as chairman of the board of the Honolulu Symphony and as chairman of the East-West Center board of directors. He also served on a number of city and state commissions.

Quinn is survived his wife, Nancy; two daughters, Cecily Quinn Affleck and Mary Kaiulani Quinn; five sons, William Jr., Timothy, Christopher, Gregory and Stephen; eight grandchildren; and one great-grandchild.

Services will be at 10 a.m. Friday at Star of the Sea Church. The family asks that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to Star of the Sea Church.