Posted on: Friday, June 21, 2002

Arthur K. Trask, lawyer, politician

By Curtis Lum
Advertiser Staff Writer

Arthur Trask: A skilled storyteller as well as orator

Arthur K. Trask, a lawyer, politician and patriarch of the Trask family, died June 3 on Kaua'i. He was 91.

Trask was born on Oct. 14, 1910, to David and Anna Trask. David Trask was an early member of the Democratic Party in Hawai'i whose influence on his nine children was immense.

The Trask offspring included eldest son Arthur; Bernard, also a lawyer and father of Haunani-Kay and Mililani Trask; and David Jr., former head of the Hawai'i Government Employees Association. The Trask family, particularly Arthur, is well-known for having strong opinions and voices.

"Uncle Arthur was without peer," said Haunani-Kay Trask, a professor at the Center for Hawaiian Studies at the University of Hawai'i-Manoa. "He was the most jocular, talkative, opinionated, humorous of all of the Trasks."

Trask said her uncle was a notable storyteller and orator, a throwback to the "great lawyers of that era."

In his later years, Arthur Trask regularly attended public hearings and meetings, regaling those in attendance with wide-ranging lessons in the history of the Islands and of the world.

"He had an untiring ability and limitless wealth of knowledge to speak about historical and current issues, be it economics, health, religion, science or politics," said his son, Arthur "Pepe" Trask Jr.

Arthur K. Trask graduated from Saint Louis School and did his undergraduate work at the University of Southern California, University of Hawai'i and Iowa State University. He earned his law degree from Georgetown University in 1936.

Before leaving the Islands for school, he sometimes performed errands for deposed Queen Lili'uokalani, collecting debts owed her.

A member of the Hawai'i and Washington, D.C., bars, Trask practiced for 40 years as a trial lawyer. From 1940 to 1944, he served as a magistrate in the Ko'olaupoko district.

But politics also was in his blood and he served as chairman of the Democratic Party's platform committee in 1936-46. Trask also was a supporter of statehood and was the last surviving member of the Statehood Commission, which he sat on from 1944 to 1957.

While fighting for statehood, Trask also was a supporter of Hawaiian rights. During the formation of the sovereignty group Ka Lahui, led by lawyer Mililani Trask, Arthur Trask argued eloquently for a nation-within-a-nation form of government for Native Hawaiians.

Haunani-Kay Trask said she at first could not understand how her uncle could be an advocate for statehood and Hawaiian sovereignty at the same time.

"Statehood meant they could vote for the governor, and once I understood that I could understand why they wanted statehood because before that the governors were all appointed by the president," she said. "They knew very well that until they got the vote they would never control who was governor."

Arthur Trask was married six times. He is survived by his wife, Muriel Oaks; sons, Anthony "Tyke," Arthur "Pepe" Jr., and Alexander "Keahi;" daughter, Anneth "Anna"; six grandchildren; two great-grandchildren; brothers, David and Valentine; sisters, Cecilia Marciel, Gladys Trask and Isabelle Davis.

A celebration, oli and pa'ina are scheduled for 10:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. June 30 at Whaler's Brewpub in Lihu'e.

Staff writer Jan TenBruggencate contributed to this report.