Spark Masayuki MATSUNAGA, Congress, HI (1916-1990)

MATSUNAGA, Spark Masayuki, a Representative and a Senator from Hawaii; born in Kukuiula, Kauai, Hawaii, October 8, 1916; graduated, University of Hawaii at Honolulu 1941 and Harvard Law School 1951; United States Army Reserve 1941; volunteered for active service in July 1941; wounded twice in battle; released from active service as a captain in December 1945; assistant public prosecutor, city and county of Honolulu 1952-1954; member of Hawaiian statehood delegation to Congress in 1950 and 1954; lawyer in private practice; member of the Territorial legislature 1954-1959, serving as majority leader 1957-1959; author and poet; elected as a Democrat to the Eighty-eighth Congress in 1962; reelected to the six succeeding Congresses (January 3, 1963-January 3, 1977); was not a candidate for reelection in 1976 to the House of Representatives, but was elected to the United States Senate; reelected in 1982 and again in 1988 and served from January 3, 1977, until his death in Toronto, Canada, April 15, 1990; cremated, ashes interred in Punchbowl National Cemetery, Honolulu, Hawaii.

Bibliography

American National Biography; Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives; Matsunaga, Spark M., and Ping Chen. Rulemakers of the House. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1976; U.S. Congress. Senate. Memorial Services. 101st Cong., 2d sess., 1990. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1992.

Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present