John D. Waihee III made history when he became the first Native Hawaiian elected governor, but much of his life touched on historical moments.
He was born in 1946 in the plantation town of Honoka'a on the Big Island, oldest child and only son of a small rancher.
While earning his undergraduate degree at Andrews University in Michigan, Waihee organized anti-Vietnam War protests and black-power seminars.
Later, while he was a community education coordinator working on voter registration in Benton Harbor, Mich., the community elected its first black mayor and black-controlled City Council.
Waihee returned to Hawai'i, and in 1976 was a member of the first graduating class of the new William S. Richardson School of Law at the University of Hawai'i.
As a delegate to the 1978 state Constitutional Convention — the official start of Waihee's political career — he helped create the state Office of Hawaiian Affairs. At the convention, Waihee took an idea put together by Hawaiians and convinced other delegates to approve it — the closest thing to sovereignty since the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy, he once said.
Although Waihee served as lieutenant governor under George Ariyoshi, it was his time as governor that defined his political career. He was elected in 1986 and in 1990.
During his first campaign, he and running mate (and future governor) Ben Cayetano declared themselves a "new generation" of Democratic political leaders. His early years as governor were marked by excitement, but when he left office in 1994, his popularity had slipped.
When he first took office, the state government enjoyed a $629 million budget surplus. By 1994, that had been whittled down to $291 million.
The Waihee administration wrestled with an economic downturn but at the same time expanded state government 34 percent. Most of the jobs were in the departments of Education and Human Services. His administration created the A-plus after-school-care program, restored more than 16,000 acres of public lands to the Hawaiian Home Lands Trust and created a committee to help define sovereignty.
