Attorney and politician Arthur Trask dies

Arthur K. Trask, an attorney and patriarch of a politically active native Hawaiian family, died June 3 AT Wilcox Memorial Hospital. He was 91.

Trask was well known on Kaua’i for his skills as an orator. He was fearless in speaking up in many political discussions in the community, and spoke in a style reminiscent of the years of his boyhood when Teddy Roosevelt and other politicians used their voices to get their point across, rather than the more pictorial style of today’s TV commercials.

Trask was the eldest son of David Trask, an early member of the Democratic Party of Hawaii, and his wife Anna. His brothers included Bernard, also an attorney and father of Hawaiian activists Haunani-Kay and Mililani Trask, and David Jr., former head of the Hawaii Government Employees Association.

One of his sons, Arthur “Pepe” Jr. of Anahola, also is an attorney.

Arthur Trask was a graduate of St. Louis School and received his law degree from Georgetown University. He practiced for 40 years as a trial lawyer, and served for several years as a district magistrate.

He also was active in the Democratic Party and was the last surviving member of the Statehood Commission, on which he served from 1944 to 1957.

He was a member of the Bar of Washington D.C. and Hawaii, and practiced law as a Trial Lawyer for 40 years across the Hawaiian Islands in the state and federal courts, in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, and before the Supreme Court of the United States. He was a member of the Rotary Club and numerous Hawaiian Organizations.

He was also known as a skilled storyteller.

Surviving are his sixth wife, Muriel Oaks; four children and six grandchildren, two brothers and three sisters.

Trask’s family and friends are invited to a celebration of his life on Sunday, June 30 from 10:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Whalers Brewpub in Lihu’e.