Posted on: Sunday, October 14, 2001

Norman Godbold, former treasurer, dead at 94

Advertiser Staff

Former Hawai'i lawyer and politician Norman Godbold Jr. died in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, on Oct. 2. He was 94.

He moved to Hawai'i in 1919 when his father, Norman Godbold Sr., was appointed assistant U.S. attorney.

Godbold was a member of the Outrigger Canoe Club and competed for placement on on the U.S. Olympic Team in 1924.

He attended Punahou School and St. Louis College, then completed law school at Stanford in 1931. When he was 26, he was appointed judge of the Wai'anae District Court.

He later served as district magistrate at Wahiawa, Pearl City and Wai'anae; tax assessor and collector and commissioner of public education on the Big Island; and district magistrate at the District Court in Hilo.

Still later, he served as assistant treasurer, then treasurer of the Territory of Hawai'i, a high-ranking office at that time.

He was also active in the Democratic Party in Hawai'i.