Hiram Fong

Grand Old Partisan salutes Hiram Fong, born in Honolulu to Chinese immigrants, October 15th 1906. He worked at the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard as a supply clerk to put himself through the University of Hawaii. While a student, he volunteered for local GOP candidates. After two years with a water utility, he attended Harvard Law School. Upon graduation in 1935, the city attorney's office hired him to be a prosecutor. His next career move was private legal practice.

Fong served in the Army judge advocate office during WWII, with the rank of major. He changed his name from "Leong" to "Hiram", perhaps a nod to one of the first Christian missionaries in Hawaii, Hiram Bingham.

First elected to the territorial house at age thirty-one, Fong rose to be speaker. His legislative efforts focused on opening up opportunities for the disadvantaged, such as a law permitting unionization of agricultural workers. He chaired the 1950 territorial constitutional convention and was delegate to the 1952 and 1956 Republican National Conventions.

Fong was an innovative businessman, who won a Horatio Alger Award. After losing re-election by just 31 votes in 1954, he turned full-time to his consumer finance company, real estate and other ventures focused on helping minority communities. He also led the drive for statehood.

In 1959, Hawaii was admitted to the Union, and Fong won one of two new U.S. Senate seats. "Being the first Asian there in the Senate, I was very, very careful. I knew that if I did anything that was in the line of dereliction of duty, why it would shame me or shame my family. It would shame those of my ethnic background, and it would shame my people of Hawaii." He was re-elected twice. 

Senator Fong received votes for the presidential nomination at the 1964 and 1968 Republican National Conventions. He counted himself among President Richard Nixon's strongest supporters and championed civil rights legislation. In retirement, he managed a botanical garden, working there just a week before his death at age ninety-seven.

Back to Basics for the Republican Party is my civil rights history of the GOP. To quote the book: "The more we Republicans know about the history of our party, the more Democrats will worry about the future of theirs. For more information, see www.grandoldpartisan.com. 

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Michael Zak is author of Back to Basics for the Republican Party, a history of GOP civil rights achievement.

Each day, his YouTube videos and TikTok videos and Rumble videos and Grand Old Partisan blog celebrate more than seventeen decades of Republican heroes and heroics. And, see Speech Raves for audience feedback from his presentations in thirty-one states.

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