Herman Tsui Fai Lum, who served a decade as chief justice of the Hawai'i Supreme Court, died Jan. 26 in Honolulu. He was 82.

Associates remember him as a thoughtful, caring person who valued legal scholarship and sound judicial reasoning. He was chief justice from 1983 to 1993.

"He authored, as well as participated in, a number of opinions that changed the legal landscape of Hawai'i and expanded or clarified important areas of the laws of this state," said current Chief Justice Ronald Moon, the remaining high court justice who served with Lum.

"We are indebted to, and grateful for, the many and positive contributions he made to the people of Hawai'i," Moon said

In March 1983, Lum succeeded Chief Justice William S. Richardson. Gov. George Ariyoshi, Lum's classmate at Central Intermediate School and McKinley High School, appointed him to the post.

Lum was born in Honolulu on Nov. 5, 1926. Following his graduation from McKinley in 1944, he served in the Navy from 1945 to 1946. In 1950 he received his law degree from the University of Missouri.

In the early 1950s he worked as an assistant prosecutor in Honolulu, pausing to serve in the Army from 1952 to 1954. He was chief attorney for the Territorial House of Representatives in 1955, and from 1956 to 1961 served as the House's chief clerk.

In 1961 President John F. Kennedy appointed Lum as U.S. attorney for Hawai'i, a position he held through 1967. He served as a state Circuit Court judge for 13 years before being named a state Supreme Court justice in 1980.

The relatively reserved Lum followed Richardson, a high-profile chief justice and a self-proclaimed "judicial activist." The Lum court came to be viewed as more conservative than that of his predecessor. He also introduced a number of initiatives to streamline the high court's case system.

"The dynamics of a modern court system demand our constant attention and supervision, as well as a certain sensitivity and flexibility in the development of future plans," Lum said at the beginning of his tenure as chief justice.

Jon Van Dyke, author and constitutional law professor at the University of Hawai'i's William S. Richardson School of Law, described Lum as a solid chief justice who dealt with some tough issues regarding privacy and civil liberties, and who always did a good job.

Lum was perceived as a jurist who had a temperament and wisdom to write solid opinions and provide leadership for the judiciary, Van Dyke said.

"Not every decision he reached was one that I agreed with," Van Dyke said. "But certainly as you look back on the whole corpus of it, he had a deep respect for individual human dignity, and did his best to apply our constitutional values along those lines."

Lum is survived by his wife of 59 years, Almira A. Lum; sons Jonathan K.K. Lum and Forrest K.K. Lum; and two grandchildren. A private service was held with arrangements made by Nuuanu Memorial Park and Mortuary.