King returned to his hometown in 1925 where he entered the real estate profession. In 1932, he ran for his first public office and served for two years on the Board of Supervisors of Honolulu. In 1934, King was elected to the United States Congress as a delegate. He served in Washington, D.C., from January 1935 to January 1943.[3]
With the outbreak of World War II, King resigned from Congress to accept a naval commission to become a commander, then captain. He retired from military service in 1946.
Later career
Once again, King returned to his hometown and was appointed to a sub-cabinet office of the governor's administration. King served in the Emergency Housing Committee for a year. He was then appointed to the Hawaii Statehood Commission in 1947 where he stayed until 1953.[3]President of the United StatesDwight D. Eisenhower appointed King to the governorship that year. He was the first governor of Hawaiian ancestry. He served in ʻIolani Palace until his resignation on July 31, 1957. During his term in office he signed HB 706 on June 5, 1957, which outlawed the death penalty in Hawaii. It became Act 282. He died in Honolulu March 24, 1959, just before Hawaii achieved statehood. He was buried in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.
Descendants
His son Samuel Pailthorpe King (1916–2010) became a lawyer and Federal Judge.[4] His grandson, Samuel Pailthorpe King, Jr. also became a lawyer and in 1985 established his own law practice with his wife, Adrienne King, also a lawyer, as King and King, Attorneys-At-Law. King's great-grandson, Samuel Wilder King II, is also a lawyer now practicing in Honolulu; his own son was named Samuel Wilder King III.[5] King's great-granddaughter, violist and composer Leilehua Lanzilotti, was a finalist for the 2022 Pulitzer Prize in Music.[6]
Legacy
In 2018, King was the subject of the short documentary Samuel Wilder King: Hawaii Statehood directed by Carolina Gratianne and produced by Daniel Bernardi with the collaboration of El Dorado Films, the Veteran Documentary Corps, and the King family.[7]