Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 15, Number 7, 1 Iulai 1998 — Herbrt Campos: OHA's new interim trustee is a Spanish Hawaiian who brings to the board experience and dreams. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Herbrt Campos: OHA's new interim trustee is a Spanish Hawaiian who brings to the board experience and dreams.

By Paula Durbln OHANA MEANS a lot to Herbert Campos, the new interim Maui trastee, and his command of his genealogy is impressive. His father's family, he begins, left Mālaga, Spain, after the Spanish-Ameri-ean War to prosper in Kailua as dairy farmers. Then, agile as a matador, he weaves through the complex kinship and hānai connections of Maipinepine, Kalanikini, Kapuaahiwa, Scotts, Cummings, Fullers and Rowans (as in Chad) converging in his maternal lineage. "Those are my links to the Hawaiian people," he proudly concludes, adding, "I love my Spanish side, but I was my kupuna's punahele, her favorite. She raised me and she instilled in me the Hawaiian way of life." A kupuna hlmself now, Trastee Campos was just four months out of St. Loui; when he married Leilani Kapaiwi Lidback in 1953. As they close in on their golden anniversary, the eouple counts three sons, a daughter and ten mo'opuna Family was key to Trastee Campos' career ehoiee. The grandfather he adored had been a firefighter as were eight of his uncles. "I always wanted to go into the fire department," he recalls, citing the tradition. He worked for the Honolulu Fire Department forlO years before transferring to Maui County where his first duty station was Moloka'i. Placing fīrst on the civil ser-

vice exam won him a promotion to eaptain, and under Mayor Hannibal Tavares he was appointed deputy chief, then chief, a position he held for five years. Trastee Campos acknowledges former Trastee Abraham Aiona's mentoring along the way, but, he insists, "I paid my dues." That included five years of eommuting to the federal government's National Fire College in Maryland where he earned a degree in executive management. In 1990, Fire Chief Campos retired after 27 years in the department. His

unsuccessful county eouneil bid was followed by an offer from HMSA he calls too good to refuse. "Eventually," he says, "HMSA realized it was time to move into Native Hawaiian health care so I became liaison with the Hawaiian health community. I lobby for those groups and serve on Papa Ola Lōkahi's board." Involvement with health, the legislature and Congress prompted Trustee Campos to apply for the vacancy created by Abraham Aiona's recent resignation. "Being a trastee is exciting," he says of

his first month in office. "Every day there is something new. I read a lot to catch up on the issues and to be able to vote intelligently. The dissension reported in the newspapers is a little farfetched. I haven't seen it. And I am just in awe sitting at the table with Gladys Brandt, who is a legend, and with Auntie Frenchy whose husband Cobra was our idol when I was young." Trastee Campos, who chairs OHA's Legislative and Governmental Affairs Committee and is on the Land and Sovereignty and Budget and Finance Committees, hopes to convince OHA's board to make kūpuna heakh care a priority. "The federal government is determined to balance the budget and the Medicare deductible will rise to $ l ,000 by the year < 2000," he explains. "A lot of our elderly cannot afford that. So we should look into a need-based supplement for kūpuna. This is something we should be doing immediately." The interim term expires in November and Trastee Campos is preparing to ran for the Maui trastee position. "I'm a dreamer," he says. I dream that OHA ean be a catalyst for the self-determina-tion Hawaiians want. I challenge eaeh Hawaiian to get involved with the Hawaiian system through OHA, to study the issues and to vote. If Queen Lili'uokalani were alive, she would be out there pleading with our people to vote. The dreams we have and the Hawai'i we want are right here." ■

lnterim Maui Trustee Herbert Campos: Dedicated to 'ohana and health care.

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