Sau Ung Loo Chan, 95, broke legal ground
By Curtis Lum
Advertiser Staff Writer
Sau Ung Loo Chan, the first female lawyer of Asian ancestry in Hawai'i and an advocate for the underprivileged, died March 1.
Advertiser library photo
She was 95.
Sau Ung Loo Chan was Hawai'i's first Asian female lawyer.
Born Aug. 8, 1906, in Ho-nolulu she was the last of six children born to Joe and Choy Shee Loo.
Her father emigrated from China and counted among his friends Sun Yat Sen, who led the overthrow of the last Chinese emperor in 1911.
Chan graduated from Punahou School and received her law degree from Yale University at age 22. She moved to Hong Kong, married and had a child.
During the Chinese-Japanese War, Chan worked as an assistant legal counsel for William Hunt & Co. in Hong Kong.
In 1940 she returned to Honolulu and passed the Territory of Hawai'i's bar examination to become the first Asian female lawyer in the Islands.
In 1943 she organized the Circuit Court Small Estate and Guardianship Division, which she managed until her retirement in 1976.
Throughout her career, Chan fought for the rights of the less privileged. Her testimony in 1948 before Congress helped amend unfair aspects of the Immigration Act of 1924.
Daughter Janice Parrott said her mother was ahead of her time.
"She was a single mother raising a daughter, and she was able to combine a successful career and accomplish raising me," Parrott said. "I think that's something that a lot of women today are still struggling with."
In 1994, Chan was recognized by the Hawai'i State Bar Association for her distinguished career along with former Hawai'i Chief Justice William Richardson, U.S. District Judge Martin Pence and influential attorney J. Russell Cades.
A year later, she was honored by the United Chinese Society as Model Chinese Mother of the year.
Richard Parrott said his grandmother was a pioneer and supportive of him. A journalist, he is seeking a masters degree in film and video production at the University of Southern California.
"She did touch many lives," he said. "She used her law for humanitarian reasons and to fight prejudice and economic injustices. That was her special mission in life."
Chan is also survived by stepsons Robert and Tim Ching.
Private services were held.
