When Hiram returned to Hawai'i from Harvard Law School, Islanders were facing tough economic times. He worked as a deputy attorney for the City & County when the political bug bit him, and he was elected as a member of the Territorial Legislature. Soon he founded his own law firm, Fong, Miho, Choy and Robinson.

During the post-war years when a change in Hawai'i's political status seemed in the offing, Hiram became a member of the Statehood Committee and vice president of the 1950 Hawai'i Constitutional Convention.

In 1959, Hiram Leong Fong became the first U.S. senator of Asian-American ancestry. His first receptionist had been a Miss Hawai'i, and she answered all the senator's phone calls with a pleasant "Aloha, Senator Fong's office." Hiram always represented the 50th and newest state with dignity and aplomb and earned the respect of his Senate colleagues.

Hiram was re-elected twice and served until 1977. During his long and honorable career in the Senate, he became a good friend of several presidents, especially Richard Nixon. His fellow Hawai'i Republicans nominated Hiram for president as Hawai'i's favorite son several times at Republican national conventions.

As a member of the Senate, Hiram advocated and supported such Republican principles as maintaining a strong military presence, free enterprise, free trade and family values. All the while, Hiram continued his career as a highly successful businessman who decided to dedicate most of his life to public service.

During his entire tenure in Washington, Hiram was the only Republican member of our congressional delegation. Since his years in Washington matched the terms of Presidents Nixon and Ford, Hiram was critical in seeing that Hawai'i's interests were properly represented in our nation's capital.

Hiram supported American policy in Vietnam because he believed it was the right thing to do. He knew that communism was a failed system of government that brought its adherents to economic, political and spiritual ruin. America to him was the fount of economic and political freedom that allowed nations to prosper and provide for all the needs of its people. But Hiram was not only a believer. He was a doer who acted positively on his beliefs.

When Hiram retired from the Senate, his local Republican colleagues begged him to run for governor, but he declined, saying only that it was time for someone else to take the lead but he would support whomever would take on the challenge. Hiram decided to be a gentleman farmer instead. At his Plantation and Gardens, he always greeted the thousands of tourists and local folks who visited his Windward spread.

Retirement from public view didn't mean total withdrawal from public involvement. In addition to his thriving business interests, Hiram had always encouraged others to run for office and freely gave of his time and expertise to prospective Republican candidates. In many ways, Hiram was one of James Mitchner's golden people who were "influenced by both the West and the East ... at home in either the business councils of New York or the philosophical retreats of Kyoto ... wholly modern and American yet in tune with the ancient and the Oriental."

Although he once said that "The people of Hawai'i would rather vote for a hau tree than they would a Republican," Hiram never wavered in his support for the Republican Party and its candidates. He never sacrificed his principles for one moment. He spent most of his 97 years promoting Hawai'i and the American dream. After Hiram Leong Fong, they broke the mold. He was a giant among men, deserving of all the praise that is being heaped upon him with his passing.

With all the others who have known him, I will always fondly remember him and with a sad heart extend my condolences to his family and loved ones.