Judge King remembered as friend to all who loved Hawaii
April 13, 1916 — Dec. 7, 2010
December 9, 2010
HONOLULU (AP) - Senior U.S. District Court Judge Samuel King, an icon in Hawaii politics and society for six decades, has died, his daughter said. He was 94.
King died Tuesday with his wife, Anne, and other family members at his bedside at Kuakini Medical Center,
his daughter Louise King Lanzilotti confirmed with The Associated Press. He had suffered head injuries in a fall two days earlier, she said.
Lanzilotti said her father ''was still working up until the last day'' on his judicial duties.
''It was quiet,'' she told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. ''He went really peacefully.''
She said details of funeral arrangements are pending, but that he will be buried in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific at Punchbowl.
Gov. Neil Abercrombie issued a statement Tuesday calling King ''the heart and soul of Hawaii.''
''He was a friend and a mentor to all who loved Hawaii,'' the Democratic governor added. ''Judge King's rollicking sense of humor - his deep capacity not to take himself seriously while taking Hawaii seriously - set a standard that few, if any, could match. His idea of what was good for Hawaii was an extension of his deep understanding of pono, of doing what's right.''
Walter Heen, a former state appeals court judge who with King and three others wrote the groundbreaking 1997 essay about what was then called the Bishop Estate, said he will miss his friend.
''I know his family will,'' Heen told the Star-Advertiser. ''The state should because he was a keen mind, fearless and always ready to speak up, particularly when he saw anything that smacked of dishonesty.''
U.S. Rep. Charles Djou, R-Hawaii, in a statement called King ''a leader in Hawaii law, politics and a family friend. Hawaii will miss his presence on the bench and his voice in our community.''
In a separate statement, Hawaii Supreme Court Chief Justice Mark Recktenwald said, ''Judge King was an outstanding jurist and a warm, caring person.''
Samuel P. King was born April 13, 1916, in China, where his father was a Navy gunboat captain. He graduated from Punahou School and earned undergraduate and law degrees from Yale University, and went on to become a translator for the Navy in World War II.
His father, Samuel Wilder King, later served as a territorial delegate to Congress from Hawaii, a territorial governor appointed by the president and a Bishop Estate trustee before he died in 1959.
His son was appointed a state judge in 1962, and he led the effort to establish a family court and helped develop Hawaii's judicial system.
King sought the governorship in 1970 as a Republican but lost to John Burns. Two years later, President Richard Nixon appointed him to the federal bench, from where he issued several well-known decisions.
Among them was a ruling barring federal authorities from using a telescope to peer into homes without a warrant and upholding a state land reform law that allowed residential leaseholders to buy land from landlords, including Bishop Estate.
King is considered by many to be the most influential of the five authors of the 6,400-word ''Broken Trust'' essay, which was published by the then-Honolulu Star-Bulletin. He was part-Native Hawaiian, an observer and participant in Hawaii politics.
The essay took on the nation's wealthiest educational trust, with assets estimated as high as $10 billion. The charitable trust was established by Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop 126 years ago, and is the state's largest private landowner and a powerful economic and landholding institution in Hawaii. It is now called Kamehameha Schools.
The other authors were Heen; Gladys Brandt, a former principal of Kamehameha School for Girls; Monsignor Charles Kekumano, a Catholic priest, and Randall Roth, a University of Hawaii law professor.
The essay prompted then-Gov. Ben Cayetano to announce the state's investigation into the trustees' management of the estate.
''I guess Sam was kind of the legal beacon,'' Heen told the Star-Advertiser. ''Whenever people wandered off, he orally banged his gavel. He always made you stop and think either about what you were saying or the direction you were going or whether your efforts or your thinking was contributing to the collaborative effort.''
Replies
Yes, the broken trust did cover their corruption so they think that is what had happened, but it was timed right for publishing. We should see what comes forth.
I HAVE NOT READ THE STORY OF BROKEN TRUST i do respect the man who has wrot e the truth about our Princess and the Mornarchy . I thank your families for doing this and the efforts that came along with his aquaintances , for this god bless you and the families Wilders. Elizabeth Gardner is a family to the bishops and wilders may your families be blessed.
hi,
JAMES KING is listed in the PIRATES OF THE PACIFIC: CHARLES REED BISHOP AND FRIENDS.............
JAMES KING was a PIRATE, along with his descendants who continued, perpetuated the CRIMES of their ancestors.... and one such was this man SAMUEL KING, grandson of the PIRATE ancestor......
ROTH was a PIRATE as well, the ROTH'S along with SANFORD B. DOLE did take care of the KRUGER children, appears to be the same KRUGER/KRUEGER's who were part of the South African government, whose parents were killed due to the slavery, mistreatment towards PEOPLE OF COLOR in South Africa................
Watch these people folks.............they're tied to dethroning our Queen as well as having an ongoing crime ring around the World due to the U.S,, England, bankers affiliations/associations.......Broke Ass, b ankrupt, corrupt, racketeering people trying to make themselves look good but check out their backgrounds.......check out their scandalous, racketeering, immoral activities.....................
every crook gets caught.....it's just a matter of time..........and now this one is in God's hands, or maybe not.......
aloha.
In light of what I said about the rotting corpse. Waianae has too many dead persons just because some judge in the Atomic Energy Commission pounded his gravel on Safe, Weak and Low as far as people being exposed to 'isotopes'. This definition of Nuclear Isotopes aggregated across nature was done on a Judges gravel---people are dying! The courts superceeded a scientific measurement that would show it's destruction. One that kills masses of people over time, and this to me is unbelieveable. This is a long process, one that will exit beyond my rotting corpse. So very sad!
Not to show any disrespect to the family of Judge Samuel King, but I posted this piece because of what I am reading on the "Free Hawaii" "AkakaBill Headed Nowhere?
I personally feel that no one should let their guard down with the word 'nowhere'. I was in the so-called no where land for four years or five. between 1974 and 1978.
Eric Holder is a key person to help or see that the Akaka Bill passes. For he said, and I wish I could quote I don't have it word verbatim. That now is the time to take 'civil rights action to task. We did the 'Breach of Trust' before the Civil Rights Commission. I was there in the room with the head person talking story about the 5(f) ceeded lands in the hallway of the federal building. I asked for an inventory of the lands when he asked me what was going on in the room. It takes quick thinking and being on your toes in this times.
I strongly believe Ehu got a point on the omnibus bill in congress. There is too much similarities to the Hawaiian Homestead amendment to the Organic Act back in 1923 with Prince Kuhio's thirteen years of debated as to why we 'needed to keep up with the dying race'. There is a lot to be said about the 'Broken Trust' and the Breach of Trust' which was simultenously written. Of course the Broken Trust superceeded over the Breach of Trust like a stink'en cover up. So something smells, and I do not like the foulness of it.
It smells like a rotting corpse.