Hayakawa, S. I. (Samuel Ichiyé), 1906-1992

<p>Samuel Ichiye Hayakawa (July 18, 1906 – February 27, 1992) was a Canadian-born American academic and politician of Japanese ancestry. A professor of English, he served as president of San Francisco State University and then as U.S. Senator from California from 1977 to 1983.</p>

<p>Born in Vancouver, British Columbia, Hayakawa was educated in the public schools of Calgary, Alberta, and Winnipeg, Manitoba, and graduated from the University of Manitoba in 1927. He received his M.A. in English from McGill University in 1928 and his Ph.D. in the discipline from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1935.</p>

<p>Professionally, Hayakawa was a linguist, psychologist, semanticist, teacher, and writer. He served as an instructor at the University of Wisconsin from 1936 to 1939 and at the Armour Institute of Technology (Illinois Institute of Technology as of 1940) from 1939 to 1948.</p>

HAYAKAWA, Samuel Ichiye, a Senator from California; born in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, July 18, 1906; educated in the public schools of Calgary and Winnipeg, Canada; received his undergraduate degree from the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada, 1927; graduate degrees in English from McGill University, Montreal, Canada, 1928 and University of Wisconsin, Madison, 1935; psychologist, semanticist, teacher, and writer; instructor, University of Wisconsin 1936-1939 and at the Armour Institute of Technology 1939-1947; lecturer, University of Chicago 1950-1955; professor, San Francisco State College 1955-1958; president, San Francisco State College 1968-1973, becoming president emeritus in 1973; columnist, Register & Tribune Syndicate 1970-1976; elected as a Republican to the United States Senate in 1976, and subsequently appointed on January 2, 1977, to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of John V. Tunney, and served from January 2, 1977, to January 3, 1983; was not a candidate for reelection in 1982; was a resident of Mill Valley, Calif., until his death in Greenbrae, Calif., February 27, 1992.

<p>Samuel Ichiye (Sam) Hayakawa’s journey from academia to Capitol Hill abounded in contradictions, reversals, and some mirthful moments. He began his long career as a successful author of semantics, later transitioning into academic administration, which, in turn, thrust him to national acclaim as the improbable, tam-o’-shanter-topped hero of the law-and-order crowd. Drawing on that popularity, Hayakawa won election to a single Senate term, where his iconoclasm contrasted with an institution rooted in tradition. Along the way, his ideological trajectory arced from New Deal liberalism to a conservatism borne of the perceived excesses of Vietnam Era protests.</p>

<p>Samuel Ichiye Hayakawa was born on July 18, 1906, in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, the eldest of four children of Ichiro and Tora Isono Hayakawa. Ichiro had left Japan and joined the U.S. Navy as a mess attendant at age 18. Two years later, he returned to Japan, married Isono, and the couple relocated to Canada. Sam Hayakawa was educated in the public schools of Winnipeg before earning a bachelor’s degree from the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg in 1927. A year later, he graduated with a master’s degree in English literature from McGill University in Montreal.</p>

<p>In 1929, the year his parents returned to their native Japan, Hayakawa immigrated to the United States, but because of naturalization restrictions that applied to Asians, he would not become a U.S. citizen until 1954. He attended the University of Wisconsin at Madison, earning a PhD in English in 1935. After finishing his studies, Hayakawa stayed and taught at his alma mater. In 1937 he married Margedant Peters, one of his former students. Many states prohibited such interracial marriages, including California, where the young couple wanted to live. So the Japanese-American husband and Caucasian wife ended up residing in Chicago for nearly two decades, where he taught at the Illinois Institute of Technology (1939–1947) and the University of Chicago (1950–1955). The couple raised three children, sons Alan and Mark and daughter Wynne.</p>