Former Rep. Patricia “Pat” Saiki, a trailblazing Hawaii Republican who served in Congress and later led the Small Business Administration under President George H.W. Bush, died Wednesday at her home in Honolulu. She was 96.
Saiki died peacefully of natural causes, her son Stuart Saiki said.
He remembered her as both a political trailblazer and a mother raising five children while serving in public office.
“She would help me with my homework, and she would be just a regular mom to us as well as a politician,” Stuart Saiki said. “So we called her Supermom.”
Saiki was preceded in death by her husband, Dr. Stanley Saiki, and their oldest son, Stanley Saiki Jr.
She is survived by four children — Sandra, Margaret, Stuart and Laurie — and her grandchildren. Funeral arrangements are pending.
A former teacher who spent decades in public service, Saiki became the first Republican elected to the U.S. House from Hawaii after statehood and only the second woman to represent the state in Congress.
Hawaii Gov. Josh Green ordered U.S. and state flags lowered at the state Capitol, government offices and Hawaii National Guard facilities from sunrise Friday through sunrise Monday in Saiki’s honor.
“Pat Saiki’s six decades of public service and her pioneering example for young women and Asian Americans in Hawaii and across the U.S. combine to form both a lasting, inspiring legacy and a high bar for all of us who serve the public,” Green said.
Born in Hilo, Saiki graduated from Hilo High School and the University of Hawaii before becoming a teacher.
Her path into politics grew out of a dispute she encountered while teaching at Kaimuki Intermediate School.
Saiki later recalled learning that one of her daughters had been taken to a hospital, only to be told that school rules prohibited her from using a school telephone for a personal call to check on the child.
The experience helped prompt Saiki to organize teachers.
She contacted Hawaii Government Employees Association leader Charles Kendall and helped establish a teachers’ chapter of the union. Saiki later wrote that she and other organizers recruited more than 2,000 teachers as they pushed for workplace changes including planning periods and private access to telephones.
She became chair of the organization and represented teachers before the state Legislature.
Saiki eventually decided to seek office herself.
Running as a Republican in 1968, she campaigned for the Hawaii House with the slogan, “This District Needs a Woman in the House.” She won.
Saiki served in the state House from 1968 until 1974 and then in the Hawaii Senate from 1974 until 1982.
After an unsuccessful campaign for lieutenant governor, Saiki became chairwoman of the Hawaii Republican Party.
Her biggest political breakthrough came in 1986, when she won election to the U.S. House.
Saiki’s victory was particularly notable in a state where Democrats had dominated federal elections. She became the first Republican elected to represent Hawaii in the House since Hawaii became a state in 1959.
She served two terms, from 1987 until 1991.
One of Saiki’s most significant accomplishments in Washington came during the debate over reparations for Japanese Americans incarcerated by the federal government during World War II.
Saiki worked to persuade fellow Republicans to support the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, which formally apologized for the internment and authorized $20,000 payments to surviving detainees.
As a Japanese American Republican, Saiki helped build support within her party for the legislation, which President Ronald Reagan ultimately signed into law.
Her family also cited another issue as one of her proudest achievements: persuading President Bush to halt the U.S. Navy’s use of the Hawaiian island of Kahoolawe as a bombing and target-training range.
Saiki gave up her House seat in 1990 to run for the U.S. Senate but lost to Democrat Daniel Akaka.
Her career in Washington was not finished, however. Bush appointed Saiki administrator of the Small Business Administration in 1991, putting her in charge of the federal agency responsible for supporting small businesses and entrepreneurs.
She remained at the SBA until 1993 and later taught at Harvard University’s Institute of Politics at the John F. Kennedy School of Government.
Saiki returned to electoral politics in 1994, unsuccessfully running for Hawaii governor. Decades later, she again served as chairwoman of the Hawaii Republican Party.
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