Spark M. Matsunaga

A Representative and a Senator from Hawaii. Born in Kukuiula, Kauai, Hawaii, October 8, 1916. Graduated, University of Hawaii at Honolulu 1941 and Harvard Law School 1951. United States Army Reserve 1941. Volunteered for active service in July 1941. Wounded twice in battle. Released from active service as a captain in December 1945. Assistant public prosecutor, city and county of Honolulu 1952-1954. Member of Hawaiian statehood delegation to Congress in 1950 and 1954. Lawyer in private practice. Member of the Territorial legislature 1954-1959, serving as majority leader 1957-1959. Author and poet. Elected as a Democrat to the Eighty-eighth Congress in 1962. Reelected to the six succeeding Congresses (January 3, 1963-January 3, 1977). Was not a candidate for reelection in 1976 to the House of Representatives, but was elected to the United States Senate. Reelected in 1982 and again in 1988 and served from January 3, 1977, until his death in Toronto, Canada, April 15, 1990. Cremated, ashes interred in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, Honolulu, Hawaii.