Judge King of Hawaii Dies at 94 Due to Complications From a Fall

Samuel P. King was born in China in 1916 and grew up in Hawaii. He graduated from Yale Law School, served in the Navy in WWII, and was appointed to the federal bench in 1972 by President Nixon.

He spent 38 years as a federal judge, and is best known as the man who mobilized the destruction of the wealthiest charity in the United States in 1995. A Hawaiian princess who died in 1884 established the Bishop Estate in her will to educate the kingdom’s natives. By 1995, its assets were worth $10 billion, and its five Democratic trustees were neglecting the trust’s educational mission and conducting financial transactions for personal gain. After the IRS threatened to take away the trust’s tax-exempt status retroactively in 1999, all the appointed trustees resigned or were removed from office.

Judge King is survived by his wife of 66 years, two daughters, a son, and six grandchildren.

See Douglas Martin, Samuel P. King, Judge and Critic of Hawaiian Charity, Dies at 94, N.Y. Times, Dec. 11, 2010.

Special thanks to Alfred Brophy (Reef C. Ivey II Professor of Law, UNC School of Law) for bringing this to my attention.