Neal S. Blaisdell

From dKosopedia

Neal S. Blaisdell
Mayor of Honolulu

Party	Republican
1965 — 1969
Preceded by	John H. Wilson
Succeeded by	Frank Fasi
Birthdate	November 6, 1902 - October 5, 1975

Neal Shaw Blaisdell, a member of the Republican Party, served as Mayor of Honolulu from 1955 to 1969. A well-liked, popular mayor of part-Hawaiian descent, Blaisdell was not a Republican hardliner. There were many crossover votes when it came to Blaisdell on the mayoral ticket.

Blaisdell was inducted into the Bucknell Athletic Hall of Fame for his quarterbacking of the 1924 Bucknell University football team.

During WW II, Blaisdell coached a local Japanese baseball team, the Athletics, under General Manager John A. Burns.

Blaisdell was a teacher, high school coach and athletic director before becoming Mayor of Honolulu. As coach of St. Louis High School, he coached Herman Wedemeyer, who became a football All-American attending St. Mary's of Moraga as well as becoming a local politician.

Blaisdell was first Honolulu Mayor to support a 29 mile rail line from Hawaii Kai to Pearl City. During his tenure, the city completed the Wilson Tunnel and commissioned the Hawai'i International Center, which now carries his name, the Neal S. Blaisdell Center in Honolulu. This multi-purpose center includes a concert hall, convention center, exhibition hall and sports arena. The concert hall is home to the Honolulu Symphony and several local ballet companies.

The shower tree seen blooming in many parts of Honolulu is most likely hybrid Wilhemina Tenney, with its unusual yellow-and-watermelon colored blossoms, it was designated official tree of the city and county of Honolulu in 1965 by Mayor Neal S. Blaisdell.

External Links

Neal Blaisdell (Wikipedia)
Gordon, Mike. Neal Blaisdell Honolulu Advertiser, July 2, 2006.
Neal S. Blaisdell Center (Wikipedia)

This biographical article is a stub. You can help dKosopedia by expanding it. Please adhere to our Policies. Before editing any pages, you must first register and log in.

Retrieved from "http://localhost../../../n/e/a/Neal_S._Blaisdell_dbc5.html"

This page was last modified 21:25, 23 February 2008 by dKosopedia user DrDebug. Based on work by dKosopedia user(s) Jbet777 and Allamakee Democrat. Content is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.