Wadsworth Y.H. Yee, a former Republican state senator and one of the founders of Grand Pacific Life Insurance Co., died May 8. He was 90.
Yee, of Kaneohe, also was an attorney, land developer and Army veteran. He was a strong supporter of the Boys & Girls Club of Hawaii and other community organizations, his family said.
"The Hawaii Republican Party lost one of their giants," David S. Chang, chairman of the Hawaii Republican Party, said in an email Tuesday.
"Sen. Yee was influential as a state senator who could barter a compromise with the Democrats to get the job done. He was always good on his word and everyone trusted him — Democrats and Republicans," Chang said. "He applied his business background and knowledge to make Hawaii a better a place through his legislation. We shall miss him."
Yee served in the Territorial House and state House from 1958 to 1962. He served in the Senate, representing the 11th District (Manoa-McCully-Waikiki) from 1966 to 1982, when he was defeated by Democrat Neil Abercrombie.
In the Legislature, Yee proposed and gained passage of a renters’ tax credit bill, and was part of an effort in the 1960s to keep Magic Island as a public park, fending off proposals for resort or residential development there. He served as Senate minority leader.
Yee was born in Honolulu and was raised in Kalihi Valley before his family moved to Waikapu, Maui. He graduated from Lahainaluna High School.
After serving in the Army during World War II, he was discharged in 1946 as a corporal and completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, where he was elected student body president.
He earned a law degree from Northwestern University and worked as a Hawaii deputy attorney general.
In 1957 Yee was part of a group, including former state House Speaker Hiram Fong, that founded Grand Pacific Life Insurance Co. Yee served as president and chief executive officer of Grand Pacific, which at its height had agencies in California, Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Samoa and American Samoa. Grand Pacific was purchased in 2000 by Sterling Insurance and has since gone out of business.
Yee also served in the Army Reserve, attaining the rank of major. He developed the Polynesian Shores and Maalaea Mermaid condominiums on Maui and the Molokai Shores and Kawela Plantation residential projects on Molokai.
He was an avid fisherman, owning boats such as the Cutty Sark, Cutty Sark 2, Wicked Wahine and Blue Nun, all based in Kewalo Basin.
Yee is survived by wife Aileen S. Kitaoka-Yee; sons Alan, Randall and Brian; stepsons Barney and Reid Tokujo; stepdaughter Carrie Kitashima; stepbrother Thomas Leong; 17 grandchildren; and seven great-grandchildren.
Visitation will be at 10 a.m. Monday at Nuuanu Memorial Park & Mortuary, with a service at 11:30 a.m. There will be a private inurnment. Aloha attire.
In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations to the Alzheimer’s Association or the Boys & Girls Club of Hawaii.
