Richard ‘Dickie’ Wong, a ‘street kid’ who became Hawaii’s Senate president, dies at 88

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – Richard “Dickie” Wong, who rose from humble roots to turn out to be president of the state Senate and chairman of the highly effective Bishop Property’s board of trustees, has died.

Wong died over the weekend after a prolonged sickness. He was 88.

“There’s no person like Dickie Wong. There’s by no means going to be one other Dickie Wong,” stated former Gov. Neil Abercrombie.

“Dickie was a avenue child, barefoot on lodge avenue shinning footwear. And he ended up because the premier chief ― the chief of the Hawaii state Senate.”

He was a labor organizer, civil rights advocate, state Senate president and chairman of the Bishop Property.

“Folks don’t know he marched with Martin Luther King Jr.,” added Abercrombie.

Abercrombie served with Wong within the state Senate for a few years ― as did former Gov. Ben Cayetano.

“Dickie was an actual individuals individual and that’s how he organized the Senate. We had been fairly shut though we had some variations,” stated Cayetano.

These variations erupted in 1997 through the Bishop Property controversy.

That’s when Cayetano ordered then-Legal professional Basic Margery Bronster to research Wong and his fellow Bishop Property trustees over allegations of mismanagement and self-dealing.

All 5 trustees had been faraway from their $1 million-a-year jobs and the property modified its identify to the Kamehameha Colleges.

“He was not discovered accountable for any wrongdoing in that interval. He was concerned in civil and prison litigation through which he was cleared of,” stated his legal professional Eric Seitz.

“Though there are criticism available over the way in which (the trustees) administered the varsity, general the Bishop Property got here out of that course of in a a lot stronger place.”

Wong is survived by his former spouses Sharane and Mari, two sons and three daughters.

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