[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 62 (Tuesday, May 13, 1997)]
[House]
[Pages H2492-H2493]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 TRIBUTE TO PETER TALI COLEMAN, FORMER GOVERNOR OF AMERICAN SAMOA AND 
                         PACIFIC ISLAND LEADER

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 21, 1997 the gentleman from Guam [Mr. Underwood] is recognized 
during morning hour debates for 5 minutes.
  Mr. UNDERWOOD. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to Peter Tali 
Coleman, former Governor of American Samoa and highly regarded Pacific 
Island leader who passed away on April 28 and was buried last Saturday 
in Hawaii. He was 77 years of age.
  He served as the first popularly elected Governor of American Samoa, 
was elected again in 1988, and also had the distinction of being 
Samoa's first and only federally-appointed native-born Governor in the 
1950's. His appointment by the Eisenhower administration made him one 
of the first islanders to serve as the head of a government anywhere in 
the Pacific, along with Joseph Flores from Guam.
  After his appointive term in American Samoa ended, the Governor spent 
nearly 17 years in the U.S. Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands 
where, as the first Pacific Islander to head the governments of what 
are now the Republic of the Marshall Islands from 1961 to 1965, and now 
the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands, 1965 to 1969, he is 
believed to be the only Pacific Islander to have headed 3 of the 21 
governments of what is now considered the modern insular Pacific. He 
was also the first U.S. citizen ever to have been awarded an honorary 
Marshall Island citizenship, an honor accorded to him by a special act 
of the Nitijela, the Marshalls' Parliament.
  During the Nixon administration Governor Coleman was appointed deputy 
high commissioner of the Trust Territory, the second-ranking position 
in the central Government of Micronesia. While in Micronesia, he and 
his wife were the only Americans invited to participate in a private 
ceremony sponsored by the Japan-based Association of Bereaved Families, 
in recognition of his efforts to repatriate to Japan the remains of 
World War II servicemen who died in action on Saipan.

                              {time}  1245

  Upon the resignation of the High Commissioner, Coleman was appointed 
as his successor in an acting capacity. A widely recognized 
regionalist, Governor Coleman was active in numerous Pacific 
organizations throughout his public career. He was a member of either 
the United States or American Samoa delegations to the South Pacific 
Conference nine times between 1958 and 1992 and was head of the 
delegation to the Conference annually between 1980 and 1984, except for 
1982

[[Page H2493]]

when he both hosted and chaired the conference in Pago Pago.
  At a special SPC meeting in Canberra, Australia, in 1983 and later 
that year at the conference in Saipan, Coleman was a leading voice in 
the debate which eventually led to equal membership in SPC for Pacific 
territories. A founding member of the Pacific Basin Development 
Council, Coleman was also the first territorial Governor to be elected 
president of that organization in 1982 and served a second term in 
1990.
  Peter Tali Coleman was born on December 8, 1919, in Pago Pago, 
American Samoa, where he received his primary education. He graduated 
from St. Louis High School in Honolulu, joined the National Guard, and 
then enlisted in the U.S. Army at the outbreak of World War II. 
Assigned to the Pacific during the war, he was stationed in the Solomon 
Islands and Vanuatu in addition to Hawaii, ultimately rising to the 
rank of captain.
  Professionally, as an attorney, he was a member of the bars of the 
U.S. district court, U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of 
Columbia, the U.S. District Court in Hawaii, and the High Courts of 
American Samoa and the old Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, as 
well as the Supreme Court of the United States. Granted an honorary LLD 
by the University of Guam in 1970 when he was cited as ``Man of the 
Pacific,'' he also received an honorary doctorate from Chaminade 
College in Hawaii.
  Governor Coleman was a true Pacific hero whose service took him well 
beyond his native Samoa. He accurately saw himself as a developer of 
indigenous governments, bringing Pacific islanders to full recognition 
of their right to self-government and their capacity to implement the 
same.
  Coleman was married to the former Nora K. Stewart of Hawaii, his wife 
of 55 years. Together they had 13 children, 12 of whom are living, 24 
grandchildren and 8 great grandchildren. We will all miss him, and we 
all send his family our condolences.

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