H. Rodger Betts, 78, government attorney
By Christie Wilson
Advertiser Neighbor Island Editor
WAILUKU, Maui — H. Rodger Betts, 78, a longtime government attorney who was an early advocate for Native Hawaiian reparations, died Sept. 14 at Maui Memorial Medical Center.
Betts was Maui County corporation counsel when President Ronald Reagan appointed him to serve on the Native Hawaiians Study Commission in 1981, along with former state lawmaker and Office of Hawaiian Affairs trustee Kina'u Boyd Kamali'i and cultural expert Winona Beamer.
Kamali'i said yesterday their work was sabotaged by Reagan administration officials, who issued a majority report asserting that the U.S. government did not officially authorize the uprising that led to the1893 overthrow of Queen Lili'uokalani, and so federal redress to the Hawaiian people was not justified. The minority report by Kamali'i, Betts and Beamer would become the basis for a congressional resolution acknowledging the illegal overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy signed in 1993 by President Bill Clinton.
"Fortunately for me, Rodger was a lawyer who was interested in the Hawaiian. He was there for the beginning of it all, when nobody cared about Hawaiians," Kamali'i said. "He added a great deal to the state."
Betts was born July 18, 1924 in Waipahu. He graduated from Maui High School in 1942 and served as a B-29 gunnery sergeant from 1943 to 1945. After his discharge, Betts earned undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Detroit and returned to Maui in 1952.
His government service included stints as a deputy corporation counsel for the City and County of Honolulu, finance director of Maui County, deputy attorney general and counsel to the Tax Commission under the Territory of Hawai'i, majority attorney for the Senate in the first state Legislature, and assistant state attorney general.
Betts at one time worked as a legislative assistant to U.S. Sen. Hiram Fong in Washington, D.C., and as minority counsel for the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee's subcommittee dealing with antitrust issues. He also was named regional director of the U.S. Office of Economic Opportunity in San Francisco, among other posts.
When then-Maui Mayor Hannibal Tavares, a fellow Republican and close friend, became chairman of the Kaho'olawe Conveyance Commission, he brought Betts on as executive director. The commission prepared the recommendation that led Congress in 1993 to agree to return the island to the state, to be maintained as a cultural preserve.
Betts is survived by daughters Alexa Basinger of Waiehu, Karen Quill of Ha'iku, Janis E. Betts of Hilo and Lorna L. Betts of Wailuku; a son, Graham Naess Betts of Ha'iku; a sister, Cleo Lee of Waiehu; and six grandchildren.
Visitation will begin at 8 a.m. Sept. 28 at the Church of the Good Shepherd in Wailuku, with a service from 11 a.m. to noon. Burial will follow at the Makawao Veterans Cemetery. Borthwick Mortuary/Norman's is assisting with the arrangements.
