Mary Matayoshi didn’t wait for a movement to become an empowered woman. She just saw the needs and did the work.
Matayoshi, 94, of Hilo, died March 15 in Honolulu after a long and influential public-service career that spanned education, international engagement, social work, nonprofit advocacy and politics.
She was first lady of the Big Island when her late husband, Herbert, served as mayor from 1974 to 1984, and mother of Kathryn Matayoshi, who served as Hawaii’s superintendent of education.
But Mary Matayoshi was a first lady of the Big Island — and Hawaii — long before and after her husband was mayor.
Among her career highlights (I could fill the page with the details), she taught in public schools and was involved in many classroom innovations. She created and led the Center for Continuing Education and Community Service at the University of Hawaii at Hilo.
She was an administrator at the Peace Corps training center in Hilo, preparing volunteers for service in the Philippines, Thailand and Malaysia. Matayoshi headed Gov. Ben Cayetano’s Office of Volunteer Services and the nonprofit Volunteer Resource Center of Hawaii, and served on the boards of a long list of nonprofits.
In one of her most important roles, Matayoshi became a mentor to young people who would rise to positions of prominence.
One was U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz. She met him when he was an executive for a nonprofit, and ultimately became co-chair of his first election for the Senate against Colleen Hanabusa, playing a key role in his razor-thin victory by lending him gravitas and courting her extensive network of local community groups affected by federal decisions.
Schatz praised Matayoshi’s “deep belief in the moral responsibility of service, education, and leadership.”
“There is nobody that made a bigger impact over a longer period of time on behalf of Hawaii’s social safety net than her,” Schatz said. “Her legacy is not just in the programs she helped build but in the communities she strengthened and the people she mentored and inspired — myself included.”
I know the feeling. When I was a young reporter on the Big Island up against more experienced competition, she took an interest in me for no reason I could understand and often pointed me in the right direction when I was adrift. And maybe sold me on a story about one of her causes.
She kept me informed about the Big Isle when I left for Washington, D.C., to cover the Hawaii congressional delegation.
We maintained email contact over the years on subjects such as our adventures at Hilo High 20 years apart, our favorite Smothers Brothers skits, mutual support for the “death with dignity” bill in the Legislature, struggles with conscience vs. party loyalty and her thoughts on political figures. (Let’s just say she wasn’t a fan of Tulsi Gabbard or David Ige and loved when Barack Obama ended his State of the Union with “mahalo and aloha.”)
“Give me a leader with brains and the stomach to believe and act on principles he is transparent about,” she said.
We were lucky to have her so long. Mary Matayoshi was a rock star of community service and an
exceptional person.
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Reach David Shapiro at volcanicash@gmail.com.
Reach David Shapiro at volcanicash@gmail.com.
