Samuel Wilder King was the eleventh Territorial Governor of Hawaii and served from 1953 to 1957.
Background
His father James A. King (1832–1899) was a ship"s master for Samuel Gardner Wilder, and later politician in the Republic of Hawaii. His mother was Charlotte Holmes Davis, daughter of Robert Grimes Davis, who descend from Oliver Holmes, Governor of Oʻahu under Kamehameha I. King was born December 17, 1886 in Honolulu and was a subject of the Kingdom of Hawai"i.
Education
His father James A. King (1832–1899) was a ship"s master for Samuel Gardner Wilder, and later politician in the Republic of Hawaii. His mother was Charlotte Holmes Davis, daughter of Robert Grimes Davis, who descend from Oliver Holmes, Governor of Oʻahu under Kamehameha I. King was born December 17, 1886 in Honolulu and was a subject of the Kingdom of Hawai"i. A devout Roman Catholic, King attended Saint Louis School, but graduated from McKinley High School.
Upon graduating, King went on to study at the in Annapolis, Maryland.
He entered the United States Navy as a commissioned officer where he served from 1910 to 1924. At the time of his discharge, he had attained the rank of lieutenant commander.
On March 18, 1912 he married Pauline Nawahineokalai Evans, another part-Hawaiian.
Career
He was appointed to the office after the term of Oren East. Long. Previously, served in the United States House of Representatives as a delegate from the Territory of Hawaii. returned to his hometown in 1925 where he entered the real estate profession. In 1932, he ran for his first public office and served for two years on the Board of Supervisors of Honolulu.
In 1934, was elected to the United States Congress as a delegate.
He served in Washington, District of Columbia from January 1935 to January 1943. With the outbreak of World World War II, resigned from Congress to accept a naval commission to become a commander, then captain.
He retired from military service in 1946. Once again, returned to his hometown and was appointed to a sub-cabinet office of the governor"s administration. served in the Emergency Housing Committee for a year.
He was then appointed to the Hawaii Statehood Commission in 1947 where he stayed until 1953.
He was the first governor of Hawaiian ancestry. He served in "Iolani Palace until his resignation on July 31, 1957. During his term in office he signed HB 706 on June 5, 1957 which outlawed the death penalty in Hawaii.
lieutenant became Acting 282.
He was buried in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific. Their youngest son, Samuel Wilder II, named after his great-grandfather, is also a lawyer now practicing in Honolulu.
Membership
He was a member of the Republican Party of Hawaii and was the first of native Hawaiian descent to rise to the highest office in the territory.