Frank Francis Fasi (born
August 27, 1920) is a
United
States
politician having the
distinction as the longest serving Mayor of Honolulu in Honolulu
, Hawai
i
. He also served as a
territorial senator and member of the
Honolulu City Council. A
perennial candidate for Hawai i offices, Fasi is popularly credited
for having built the foundations on which Honolulu now thrives as
one of the largest modern municipalities in the nation.
Early years
Fasi was
born on 27 August 1920
in Hartford,
Connecticut
, where he eventually attended Trinity
College
. Following the Japanese
attack on
Honolulu on 7 December 1941, Fasi enlisted in the United States Marine Corps
through which he served in the Pacific Theater. After ending
his tour of duty in 1944, Fasi settled in Honolulu where he became
an entrepreneur, opening his own contracting, building demolition
and salvage company.
Political career
In 1958, Fasi entered into politics, winning his first race to
represent his district in the senate of the
Territory of Hawai i. His term was cut
short when Hawai i achieved statehood and the territorial
legislature was dissolved in 1959. After returning to his business,
Fasi once again ran for office in 1965 winning a seat on the
Honolulu City Council where he
served as a councilman through 1968.
Frank F.
Fasi Election
Summary
| Year |
Race |
Election |
Party |
Outcome |
| 1958 |
Territorial Senator |
General |
Democrat |
Won |
| 1965 |
Honolulu City
Councilman |
General |
Democrat |
Won |
| 1967 |
Honolulu City Councilman |
General |
Democrat |
Won |
| 1968 |
Mayor of Honolulu |
General |
Democrat |
Won |
| 1972 |
Mayor of Honolulu |
General |
Democrat |
Won |
| 1974 |
Governor of Hawai i |
Primary |
Democrat |
Lost to George R. Ariyoshi (D) |
| 1976 |
Mayor of Honolulu |
General |
Democrat |
Won |
| 1978 |
Governor of Hawai i |
Primary |
Democrat |
Lost to George R. Ariyoshi (D) |
| 1980 |
Mayor of Honolulu |
Primary |
Democrat |
Lost to Eileen Anderson (D) |
| 1982 |
Governor of Hawai i |
General |
Independent Democrat |
Lost to George R. Ariyoshi (D) |
| 1984 |
Mayor of Honolulu |
General |
Republican |
Won |
| 1988 |
Mayor of Honolulu |
General |
Republican |
Won |
| 1992 |
Mayor of Honolulu |
General |
Republican |
Won |
| 1994 |
Governor of Hawai i |
General |
Best |
Lost to Benjamin J.
Cayetano (D) |
| 1996 |
Mayor of Honolulu |
General |
Nonpartisan |
Lost to Jeremy Harris (N-P) |
| 2000 |
Mayor of Honolulu |
General |
Nonpartisan |
Lost to Jeremy Harris (N-P) |
| 2003 |
Congress 2nd District |
Special |
Nonpartisan |
Lost to Ed Case (D) |
| 2004 |
Mayor of Honolulu |
General |
Nonpartisan |
Lost to Mufi Hannemann (N-P) |
After losing his 2004 bid for the office of mayor, Fasi, then 84
years old, announced that he would not run for office again.
Mayor of Honolulu
By the late 1960s, Fasi had gained a colorful reputation. The
Honolulu Advertiser and
Honolulu Star-Bulletin newspapers
were using the words "firebrand," "trailblazer" and "maverick" to
describe him. In 1969, Fasi was elected Mayor of Honolulu and
served through 1981 when he was defeated for the first time for
re-election by
Eileen Anderson. He
staged a comeback and defeated Anderson in the 1984 election,
returning to Honolulu Hale once again and serving as mayor through
1994, when he resigned to seek the Hawai i governorship.
In all, Fasi served 22 years as Honolulu mayor, the longest
cumulative tenure of any Honolulu mayor.
Best Party
Fasi rose through the ranks of the
Democratic Party in his early
years. In 1984, he was persuaded by
D. G. Anderson to quit and join the
Republican Party. He rose
through the Republican Party ranks with ease. In 1994, both parties
pushed him away in favor of younger, more popular candidates. In
retaliation, Fasi established the
Best Party of Hawai i and ran for
Governor of Hawai i against
Patricia F. Saiki and
Benjamin J. Cayetano. Fasi lost but his party lives
on as the
Aloha Δ€ina Party of
Hawai i with which it merged in 1997.
Legacy
Much of Honolulu today retains reminders of Honolulu's Fasi Era.
He opened
the Neal
S.
Blaisdell Center, and established "TheBus," the national award-winning
public transportation
system. Fasi also invented and built the
Satellite City Hall system, established
one of the nation's largest elected
neighborhood board systems, and pushed
for the construction of the H-POWER waste-to-energy plant.
Fasi created the popular Summer Fun recreational program for
children and the annual Honolulu City Lights winter festival. Fasi
popularized a local hand gesture called the
shaka when he ordered it to become the
city's signature logo and printed on all city signs and
publications.
He is also
credited with transforming the Capitol
District by bulldozing massive parking structures near the
Hawai i State
Capitol
, Iolani
Palace
and Kawaiaha o Church
to create large parcels of green space known as the
Honolulu Civic Center. He also created a central office
building for many of the city's departments.
In recognition of his service to Honolulu, Mayor
Mufi Hannemann renamed both the Civic Center
and the Municipal Building in July 2006. In order to do so, the
Honolulu City Council amended its charter with the passage of Bill
76 (2005) CD 1, FD 1, which bypassed a ban on naming city and
county sites in honor of living persons. The
Mayor Frank F. Fasi Civic Center and
Mayor Frank
F. Fasi
Municipal Building now stand as memorials to him.
See also
External links
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