Posted on: Monday, July 4, 2005

Inouye endowment finds funding quickly

Associated Press

After only a month of fundraising, the University of Hawai'i Foundation is nearing its goal of funding a $2 million endowment named for U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye and his wife.

The Dan and Maggie Inouye Distinguished Chair in Democratic Ideals will be held by a politician, journalist or professor who will spend a year at the university's Manoa campus.

It is the first time Inouye has allowed his name to be attached to a permanent tribute.

"I've had suggestions of this nature in the past, and I've turned them down," Inouye said. "But I felt that Maggie and I are graduates of the University of Hawai'i so it would seem, in a way, appropriate. ... I must tell you that it was heartwarming to see so many respond."

Along with being a graduate of the school, Maggie Inouye also spent more than a decade as a speech and linguistics instructor at the university.

Retired banker and longtime Democratic Party supporter Walter Dods was asked in May to lead the fundraising effort. He raised $1.6 million in just a month — including $50,000 of his own money.

The idea for the project was first developed in 1995, but it took a decade to finish the details, said Donna Vuchinich, president and chief executive officer of the foundation.

Donors to the endowment include former UH President Kenneth Mortimer and Norwegian Cruise Line Ltd. Both Bank of Hawaii and First Hawaiian Bank donated $200,000.

Inouye has long resisted allowing anything to be named in his honor. Last year a fleet of Pearl Harbor tugs was named after each member of Hawai'i's congressional delegation. However, Inouye asked that his boat instead be given the name "Kaimana Hila," the unofficial song of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team.

"Maybe I'm old and sensitive," Inouye said, "but I hate to have people suggest that I work hard for a certain project because I wanted my name emblazoned on a wall. In this case, you won't see my name put on some plaque. It will be administered by the university."

The seat, which is one of 20 endowed chair faculty positions at the university, could be filled as early as spring 2006.

Law School Dean Aviam Soifer said he hopes to fill the spot with major public figures.

"They could be retired Supreme Court justices, retired journalists, people who just have things to share throughout the university and throughout Hawai'i," he said.

Soifer said while he had some people in mind for the seat, it is still too early to reveal who they might be.