RONALD AMEMIYA Obituary

RONALD YOSHIHIRO AMEMIYA February 14, 1940-January 8, 2024 The life of Ronald Yoshihiro Amemiya, and his lifelong commitment to public service as Hawaii Attorney General, director of the Office of Consumer Protection, Automotive Insurance Commissioner, military veteran, social advocate, and loving husband will be celebrated Saturday, June 8, in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Keolu Chapel, 1461 Kanapuu in Kailua. Visitation begins at 10 a.m. with services following at 11 a.m. California attorney and businessman Hiram de Fries remembered Ron as the guy who would "meet me in the morning outside of the library, reviewing my homework and correcting it," when they were attending Punahou as scholarship students in the 1950s. It was the start of a life-long friendship. "Ron was an inclusive person," de Fries said. "Everybody was a person of value to him. That's the kind of person he was. We didn't come from wealthy families when we were at Punahou but all of us learned how to stay together, keep working hard, and keep trying. We had that relationship all the way until he passed." Ron put the principle of inclusion into effect during his tenure as State Attorney General when he put Philippine immigrant attorneys on the AG staff and sought other opportunities to bring immigrants into government service. "He hired Filipino lawyers because he felt there was not equal representation," Philippine-born engineer Ed Manglallan said. "I'm an immigrant. I grew up in the Philippines. He wanted representation of Filipinos in the government, and that's how I got to work with him." Ron's service as Hawaii State Attorney General put him in touch with hie counterparts nationwide. Bob Baxley, former State Attorney General of Alabama, remembered him as "the most pro-American patriotic person I've ever known." "We were fairly close to the same age (in 1974). I was the youngest (attorney general) and Ron was a little bit older than me. I've met a lot of good people, but we just hit it off, and we were friends for the rest of our lives." Ron Amemiya was born and raised in Kemoo Camp and Whitmore Village in Wahiawa. He attended Helemano School in Wahiawa until the 8th grade when he received a scholarship to attend Punahou. Ron became a commuter riding the bus from Wahiawa to Punahou and back, five days a week, until he graduated. Ron continued his education with a Bachelor of Business Administration from the UH-Manoa in 1962, served two years on active duty as a commissioned officer with the US Army, and then attended the Hastings College of the Law at the University of California where he graduated with a degree in law in 1967. Returning to Hawaii he joined the Attorney General's office and assisted senior deputy attorney generals in servicing the Department of Land and Natural Resources, the Department of Transportation, and the Department of Public Safety. He subsequently served as senior deputy attorney general for the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations, as director of the Office of Consumer Protection and administrator of the "odd-even" GASPLAN implemented in response to the OPEC oil embargo, and as Automotive Insurance Commissioner administrating the nation's first no-fault insurance program. Ron made Hawaii history in 1974 when he was appointed state Attorney General at the age of thirty-four. To date he is the only Attorney General from Hawaii to present a case in the US Supreme Court in Washington, D.C. In 1976 he was elected Chairman of the Conference of Western Attorneys General, and in 1979 he was designated an Outstanding Young Man of America. Ron's work in private practice maintained many of his relationships with state and local government, and he spent many hours giving testimony on various issues at the legislature and the Honolulu City Council. In 2018 he returned to public service as a deputy attorney general assigned to the tax division. Charles Toguchi, veteran legislator, and former Superintendent of the Hawaii State Department of Education, said Ron was "a very honest and hard-working guy, very compassionate. Very smart and very intelligent He knew the political scene in Hawaii, He was on top of things." "Until the last few weeks of being in the hospital, he kept talking about some of the concerns that the legislature was addressing or not addressing," Toguchi said. "To the end he was concerned about a lot of things that needed to be worked on. That's the kind of life he led; he was always trying to improve things." Ron is survived by his loving wife and life-partner, Caroline Hee-Amemiya, one brother, three sisters, two sons and two grandsons. He is preceded in death by an older brother and older sister.