Dr. Henry “Hank” Oyama

Memorial services for Dr. Henry “Hank” Oyama were held today at St. Augustine’s Cathedral, 192 S. Stone Ave, with hundreds of people from the Tucson community in attendance. Dr. Oyama was 86 years old and passed away on March 20. He was born and raised here in Tucson, and at age 15 was innocently interned along with 120,000 other Japanese Americans in relocation camps in the western United States. Hank was sent to such a camp north of here in Poston, Arizona with his mother and sister. He was drafted into the U.S. Army after spending 15 months in that internment camp, and later enlisted in the U.S. Air Force, from which he retired as Lt. Colonel.

After returning to Tucson he earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees at the University of Arizona in education, and taught at Pueblo High School for 18 years. Following that he was hired at Pima Community College as director of bilingual and international studies, later became Associate Dean of that program, and eventually retired from PCC in 1991 as Vice President Emeritus. He was bilingual in Spanish and was well know for his advocacy for Hispanic students in Tucson, and established the Hispanic Student Endowment Fund. In 2003 an elementary school in Tucson was named after him at 2700 S. La Cholla Blvd.

Today’s service started off with a welcome by Bishop Gerald Kicanas, who said that Hank was “proud of his roots” and “rejoiced in them here in Tucson.” He also said that Hank “taught by example.” Father Gonzalo Villegas said that Hank exemplified Pope Paul VI’s statement “If you want peace, work for justice.” Particularly touching were when “Amazing Grace” and “Ave Maria” were sung.

Beautiful eulogy delivered today by Ward 5 Councilman Richard Fimbres (also a pallbearer), who spoke of Hank as a “man of integrity, a role model for all”, and listed the many awards/honors that Hank received over his lifetime including Pan Asian Man of the Year in 2005. Hank’s only surviving daughter Mary Catherine Tate spoke of her dad as the person she “learned tenacity from” and that “love is a choice.” Hank was survived by his 2nd wife Laura Ann Toledo Oyama, four children, five stepchildren, fourteen grandchildren, six great grandchildren.

Attending today’s service were many notables:

Ruben Reyes for CD 3 Congressman Raul Grijalva
Former State Senator Victor Soltero
LD 3 State Rep. Macario Saldate (pallbearer)
Pima County District 4 Supervisor Ray Carroll, District 5 Supervisor Richard Elias
Tucson City Councilmembers Richard Fimbres, Karin Uhlich, Regina Romero, former Councilman Steve Leal
TUSD governing board members Adelita Grijalva, Mark Stegeman, Kristel Foster, Cam Juarez
Sunnyside board member Eva Dong Carrillo
former TUSD Superintendents Roger Pfeuffer, Stan Paz

In 1959 he and his Caucasian college sweetheart Mary Ann Jordan challenged Arizona’s anti-miscegenation law which prohibited a Caucasian person from marrying someone Asian American. The actual statute stated: “The marriage of a person of Caucasian blood with a Negro, Mongolian, Malay or Hindu is null and void.” Hank and Mary Ann became plaintiffs in the ACLU of Arizona’s first case, to challenge this law, which was stuck down by Pima County Superior Court Judge Herbert Krucker, but then appealed to the Arizona Supreme Court. Before that court could rule, the Arizona legislature repealed that law, so Hank and Mary Ann’s case was dismissed as moot.

I (an ACLU state board member for five years) attended the ACLU of Arizona’s 50th anniversary dinner on March 20, 2009 where the attorneys for that case were honored, as well as Hank. His wife Mary Ann had passed on by then, but Hank said that she should have been there that night, because she had a harder time with the verbal abuse she endured by being a white person married to a non-white person back then. For Hank and Mary Ann, love was indeed a choice, and they had to fight to remain together and get married.

He received an honorary doctorate from the University of Arizona for this civil rights challenge.

More about Hank in

Arizona Daily Star: http://azstarnet.com/news/local/tucson-education-civil-rights-advocate-hank-oyama-dies/article_fa0197ee-9185-11e2-b1b5-0019bb2963f4.html

Rum Romanism Rebellion (by former State Rep. Tom Prezelski): http://www.rumromanismrebellion.net/2013/03/21/dr-henry-hank-oyama-1926-2013/

Rest in peace civil libertarian and “father of bilingual education” Henry “Hank” Oyama.

Reminder: Town Hall/Roast tonight with Ward 6 Councilman Steve Kozachik (“Steve K”) and host David Fitzsimmons (“Fitz”), cartoonist of the AZ Daily Star, at the Loft, 7 p.m. From Steve K’s newsletter:

There has been an excellent response to the January 7th event – please continue to rsvp us @ 791.4601 or 795.0844. Also, if there are particular areas of interest you’d like to hear addressed (Federal, State, County, or local) send us an email @ ward6@tucsonaz.gov / something such as “what will you do to address the following…?”

The event is scheduled for 7pm – 9pm / 3233 E. Speedway / Loft Cinema.

Lisa Horner from Access Tucson has offered to tape the event to be re-run after the fact in order for those who can’t make it to give it a look. It’ll air on Saturdays at 11am and Sundays at 7pm starting Jan. 13th. Cox Channel 20/Comcast 74. There are technical reasons why they can’t air it live, but let’s hope this is the start of some community conversations that, through cooperation between all of our media partners we can book follow up meetings and get these things out over the air in real time in the days ahead.

Here’s the unofficial list of politicians who will be attending or sending a representative (if they don’t dare show up to be “roasted”):

Congressman Raul Grijalva (CD 3)
Congressman Ron Barber (CD 2)
State Senator Olivia Cajero Bedford (LD 3)
State Senator David Bradley (LD 10)
State Senator Steve Farley (LD 9)
State Representative Sally Ann Gonzales (LD 3)
State Representative Macario Saldate (LD 3)
State Representative Stefanie Mach (LD 10)
State Representative Bruce Wheeler (LD 10)
State Representative Ethan Orr (LD 9)
State Representative Victoria Steele (LD 9)
County Supervisor Richard Elias (D 5)
County Supervisor Sharon Bronson (D 3)
City – Mayor Jonathan Rothschild

My previous blog post announcing this event, with updates (click here). The list of politicians was created as those who have an impact on the issues of Ward 6 in the City of Tucson.

Due to threats of disruption about this event the Az Daily Star has reported (click here) that there will be no live microphone, no guns allowed, and bags will be checked. Doors open at 6 p.m. Questions can be submitted in writing at the community town hall.

From Ward 6 Councilman Steve Kozachik (aka “Steve K” or “Koz”) via his email newsletter of December 5, 2012:

Ward 6 Councilman Steve Kozachik

On January 8th, 2011, our community was forever changed.
With the tragic shootings, we came together and for a time embraced the phrase “Together We Thrive”. The emphasis was on
the word “together”.

Since that time, we have gone through three elections in which we elected people at the Federal, State, County and City levels. And it is my sense that the combined effect of politics, outside/big money and the passage of time is that we’re drifting back to the polarized bickering that prevents us from solving some of our fundamental community issues.

So, on January 7th, 2013, we’re going to reset the needle.
What I have done is to reserve The Loft Theater from 7pm until 9pm on that Monday evening. In addition, I have asked Dave Fitzsimmons to emcee/facilitate a Town Hall/Roast meeting. A huge thanks to both Peg Johnson for allowing me to use her facility, and to Fitz for agreeing to an evening in which up to 15 “politicians” will be seated near to him, potentially placing his sanity at risk.

Finally, I have made a personal call to invite every elected official who has anything to do with Ward 6 to come and take part in the event. Everybody has said that if their schedules permit, they’ll be there.
The invitees are our Federal, State, County and City representatives. They’re Democrats and Republicans. And every one of them is coming with the intent of showing that there really are some of us who want to work together for the greater good.

The format will evolve a bit between now and January 7th, but generally it will be a combination of some light sautéing of the elected officials by Fitz, and Q&A from the audience. This is our addressing issues that are meaningful to you in a serious manner, and doing so in an environment in which we won’t be allowed to take ourselves too seriously.
And I’m making sure that the event will be free to the public.

What I need from you is an RSVP so between me and Peg Johnson we can decide on which of her 3 theaters we’ll be using. They vary in seating capacity, but we’ll of course want to know that well in advance so she can use the remaining two for
movies. Please call The Loft at 795.0844, Ward 6 office at 791.4601, or email back to us so we can begin to do a head-count.

I’ll of course be giving some updates on the event between now and the 7th, but The Loft folks could use some time to do the advance planning – if you think you’ll be coming, let me know as soon as you feel you can commit.
I’m thankful to each of the elected men and women who have indicated an interest in participating
in the event. More on this in the weeks ahead.

The Loft Cinema is at 3233 E. Speedway, near the Ward 6 Council office, which is at 3202 E. 1st St.

The Ward 6 email is ward6@tucsonaz.gov, so please RSVP if you can make it on January 7, 2013. My husband and I have already done so, and we hope to see you Ward 6 residents, friends, etc. there for this “roast”. This will be a good event by “Koz” and “Fitz” to bring the Tucson community together again almost 2 years since the Tucson Tragedy shooting.

Republican Ward 6 Councilman Steve Kozachik was elected in Nov. 2009 defeating incumbent Democrat Nina Trasoff. He is up for re-election next year. He currently serves as Vice Mayor and his website is: http://cms3.tucsonaz.gov/wardsix.

12/12/12 UPDATE: From Steve K as which politicians are coming or sending a rep:

Congressman Raul Grijalva (CD 3)
Congressman Ron Barber (CD 2)
State Senator Olivia Cajero Bedford (LD 3)
State Senator David Bradley (LD 10)
State Senator Steve Farley (LD 9)
State Representative Sally Ann Gonzales (LD 3)
State Representative Macario Saldate (LD 3)
State Representative Stephanie (should be Stefanie) Mach (LD 10)
State Representative Bruce Wheeler (LD 10)
State Representative Ethan Orr (LD 9)
State Representative Victoria Steele (LD 9)
County Supervisor Richard Elias (D 5)
County Supervisor Sharon Bronson (D 3)
City – Mayor Jonathan Rothschild

That’s a lot of politicians in one room of the Loft Theater.