BRUCE C. MCCALL / 1920-2008
Interim mayor had role in ConCon
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Bruce C. McCall, a former interim mayor of the Big Island and a supporter of the creation of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, died Monday in California. He was 87.
McCall had spent most of his career in the sugar industry when Shunichi Kimura, the Big Island's first mayor under a new system of county government in the 1960s, appointed McCall as his managing director.
When Kimura was appointed as a circuit judge in 1974, McCall became the second mayor until a replacement was chosen in an election months later. McCall did not run.
He was elected as a delegate to the 1978 Constitutional Convention. Former state legislator Helene Hale remembered McCall backing ConCon leader John Waihee, who mustered support to create the Office of Hawaiian Affairs.
McCall's son Michael also remembered his father supporting the ConCon change that transferred control of real property taxes from the state to the counties.
Mayor Harry Kim, then a young federal program administrator, worked to get McCall elected to the ConCon. "This guy did good work," Kim said of McCall.
McCall was born in Wakeeny, Kan., in 1920 but moved to Hawaii when he was 9. He graduated from Iolani School and the University of Hawaii, with a degree in agriculture.
He began working for sugar company C. Brewer in 1942, took a break when he served in the county posts and then returned to Brewer as a legislative lobbyist.
McCall is survived by sons Michael and Jeffrey; daughters Sheila Faircloth, Nancy McCall and Barbara Saquing; sister Sheila Bush; and eight grandchildren. Private services will be held.