HONOLULU — The first Native Hawaiian elected to Congress was memorialized Friday at the state Capitol, where he was scheduled to lie in state for 24 hours.
Sen. Daniel Akaka died in April at the age of 93 after being hospitalized for several months.
Hawaii Army National Guard soldiers carried the late senator’s casket to the Capitol rotunda, where members of the Royal Order of Kamehameha, other Hawaiian royal societies and state lawmakers paid their respects to Akaka’s family.
The Royal Hawaiian Band played the senator’s favorite song, “Hawaiian Lullaby.”
The Akaka family planned services at the Capitol Friday evening and at Kawaiahao Church on Saturday. Both ceremonies were to be open to the public.
Irene Hirano Inouye, widow of Akaka’s fellow longtime colleague the late U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye, said in a statement her husband had tremendous respect and admiration for Akaka. “He would often remark, ‘When you open a dictionary, next to the word Aloha should be a picture of Dan Akaka,’” she said.
Akaka “demonstrated, every day, that governing can and should be done with kindness, empathy and respect,” she said.
The Democrat served 14 years in the U.S. House before he was appointed to replace Sen. Spark Matsunaga, who died of cancer in spring 1990. Akaka won election that fall for the rest of Matsunaga’s term, and voters sent him back for consecutive terms until 2012, when he chose not to seek re-election.
Akaka once said his main accomplishment in Congress was obtaining federal funds for Hawaii for education, energy and Native Hawaiian programs.
Born in 1924, Akaka grew up in a devoutly Christian home in Honolulu. He was the youngest of eight children of a Native Hawaiian mother and a Hawaiian-Chinese father.
After serving in the Army Corps of Engineers during World War II, Akaka earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in education at the University of Hawaii. He was a public school teacher, principal and program specialist for 18 years before becoming director of the Hawaii Office of Economic Opportunity in 1971.
Akaka is survived by his wife, Mary Mildred “Millie” Chong, four sons, a daughter and many grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
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This story has been corrected to show royal societies greeted the senator’s casket.
I had no idea he was that important. I guess I never really understood why anyone would want to go into politics. Dan Akaka has erased the surreal tactics of others in State government and who have passed away. Namely one, Mark Takai. Obviously Dan was a health nut. Hawaiian diet modified. There was a book out on it. Later called the Shintani diet. Many people have heard of that diet. Something we all can learn from.
As a Hawaiian and veteran, Akaka is a disgrace to the Hawaiians and veterans alike. I personally called his office to assist in an issue I was having in the military and his staff had no idea what to do. So I went to Inouye’s office and it got resolved that same day.
For over 40 years in office, what has Akaka really done to help Hawaiians, Ala ala, NOTHING, His name if you take out the first letter, is quite appropriate for his “accomplishments”.