Earl Anzai, the no-nonsense and feisty former attorney general and director of budget and finance under former Gov. Ben Cayetano, died Sunday. He was 81.
The state Department of the Attorney General announced Anzai’s death Friday in a news release but did not identify the cause of death.
Anzai was an “extraordinary person” who was intelligent, down to earth and had a wry sense of humor, Cayetano told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser.
Even though Cayetano served two terms as governor from 1992 to 2002, the two worked closely together starting in 1975 and remained friends until Anzai’s death.
“Everyone who got to know Earl knew that he was a man of solid character,” Cayetano said. “He was one of the smartest guys that I had worked with. … Earl was the kind of person who, if he believed in you, was super loyal — and that he was to me and me to him.”
Anzai graduated from Kahuku High School and studied at Emory University in Atlanta and Oregon State University before receiving a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Hawaii at Manoa in 1964. He continued his education at UH, completing a master’s degree in economics in 1966 and earning a law degree from UH’s William S. Richardson School of Law in 1981.
Prior to becoming director of the state Department of Budget and Finance, Anzai served in various roles as chief clerk on the state Senate’s Ways and Means Committee; a clerk on the Committee of Environment, Agriculture, Conservation and Land at the state’s Constitutional Convention in 1978; and chief counsel on the state Senate Committee on the Judiciary.
During the heptachlor milk contamination crisis on Oahu in 1982, Anzai served as the chief investigator who led a special Senate committee to investigate the pesticide poisoning.
At the time, Cayetano was a state senator and chair of the special investigative committee. He said the panel suspected that Meadow Gold was warehousing some of the contaminated cream at its Aiea facility.
Anzai suggested that he and Cayetano go to Meadow Gold’s warehouse in Utah to “stake out the place,” Cayetano recalled. So the pair did just that, sitting outside the facility when, at 2 a.m., a police officer approached, shined a light in their faces and asked them what they were up to.
“We just explained to him (what they were doing), and he said, ‘Oh, OK,’” Cayetano said. “And I kind of scolded Earl. I said, ‘Earl, you know, he might’ve thought we were two guys messing around,’ and he’s just laughing. … So, you know, I’m going to miss him a lot.”
Anzai also practiced law as a partner at the Anzai & Evangelista law firm and had his own law practice.
From 1990 to 1994 he served as special counsel at the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, where he was a key adviser, according to Cayetano.
“He certainly wanted to be fair to Native Hawaiians,” he said.
From 1995 to 1999, Anzai was Cayetano’s budget and finance director. The former governor called him a “feisty guy” who thought independently and didn’t sugarcoat anything.
When the state Senate failed to confirm Anzai’s nomination as state budget director for Cayetano’s second term in 1999. Cayetano nominated Anzai to become attorney general because of his “integrity, credibility, honesty, courage and loyalty,” he said.
As attorney general, “Anzai was a strong advocate for the rule of law and sound management of taxpayer dollars,” state Attorney General Anne Lopez said in Friday’s news release.
Brian Furuto, who served as special assistant to the attorney general under Anzai, called him “a remarkable individual whose intellect and laid-back demeanor left an indelible mark on all who knew him.”
“Many know him as being diverse enough to be both Finance Director and Attorney General, but few understand that he had a vast knowledge that spanned numerous subjects, making him an invaluable source of guidance,” Furuto said in the news release.
Anzai succeeded Margery Bronster in the post in 1999 and served as attorney general until the end of Cayetano’s second term in 2002.
“I will never forget when he told me, ‘Now I will show you how it is supposed to be done,’” Bronster said in the news release.
Other tributes came from former Attorney General Mark Bennett, who called Anzai “a dedicated public servant” who was also a well-respected attorney in private practice.
Funeral arrangements were not announced. The Department of the Attorney General said his family requests privacy at this time.
Correction: An earlier version of this story had an incorrect first name for Anzai in its headline and contained incorrect location information for a Meadow Gold facility.
