Samuel Wilder King was Territorial Governor of Hawai'i from 1953 to 1957. Previous to his term, he was Congressional delegate and president of the constitutional convention that wrote the state's first laws.
King returned to his hometown in 1925 where he entered the real estate profession. In 1932, he ran for his first public office and served for two years on the Board of Supervisors of Honolulu. In 1934, King was elected to the United States Congress as a delegate. He served in Washington, DC from January 1935 to January 1943. With the outbreak of World War II, King resigned from Congress to accept a naval commission to become a commander, then captain. He retired from military service in 1946.
Later Career
Once again, King returned to his hometown and was appointed to a sub-cabinet office of the governor's administration. King served in the Emergency Housing Committee for a year. He was then appointed to the Hawai'i Statehood Commission in 1947 where he stayed until 1953. President of the United StatesDwight Eisenhower appointed King to the governorship that year. He served in 'Iolani Palace until his resignation on July 31, 1957. He died in Honolulu in the spring before Hawai'i achieved statehood. He was buried in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.
King, who was part-Hawaiian, graduated from Saint Louis School and the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, Md. He served in the Navy for 14 years, attaining the rank of lieutenant commander, before returning to Hawai'i in 1925 to work in real estate and insurance.
King returned to the military during World War II, then returned to Hawai'i to serve on the Governor's Emergency Housing Committee (1946), the Hawai'i Statehood Commission (1947 to 1953) and the 1950 Constitutional Convention, of which he was president.
King's term was marked by heated veto battles with the new Democrat-controlled Legislature, including a measure to raise the state excise tax from 2.5 percent to 3.5 percent.
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