David Matsuura (February 21, 1963 – April 18, 2020) was a Japanese American politician and businessman from Hawaii.

Early life and education

Matsuura was born in

Allahabad Allahabad (), officially known as Prayagraj, also known as Ilahabad, is a metropolis in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.The other five cities were: Agra, Kanpur (Cawnpore), Lucknow, Meerut, and Varanasi (Benares). It is the administrat ...

, India. His father,

Richard Matsuura Richard Matsuura (1933 May 2, 1997) was a Japanese American politician from Hawaii. Early life and education Matsuura was born in Waialua in 1933. He graduated from Waialua High School in 1950. He went on to earn a bachelor's degree from Oregon ...

, and his mother, Ruth Matsuura, were in India working as

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's b ...

missionaries. The family returned to Hawaii in 1971. He earned a degree in economics from the

University of California, Davis The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis) is a public land-grant research university near Davis, California. Named a Public Ivy, it is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University of California system. The institut ...

Career

In 1985 Matsuura took over his father's

orchid Orchids are plants that belong to the family Orchidaceae (), a diverse and widespread group of flowering plants with blooms that are often colourful and fragrant. Along with the Asteraceae, they are one of the two largest families of flowering ...

nursery. Matsuura was elected to the

Hawaii Senate The Hawaii Senate is the upper house of the Hawaii State Legislature. It consists of twenty-five members elected from an equal number of constituent districts across the islands and is led by the President of the Senate, elected from the membe ...

in 1998, filling his father's former seat. He was one of the "Five Freshmen" and chaired the Senate Health Committee. He lost his seat in 2002 to

Lorraine Inouye Lorraine Rodero Inouye (born June 22, 1940) is an American politician from the state of Hawaii. A member of the Democratic Party, she serves in the Hawaii State Senate, representing District 4. She is of no relation to prominent U.S. senator from ...

because the district was reapportioned. Matsuura died of a

stroke A stroke is a medical condition in which poor blood flow to the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and hemorrhagic, due to bleeding. Both cause parts of the brain to stop functionin ...

on April 18, 2020, at

Queen's Medical Center The Queen's Medical Center, originally named and still commonly referred to as Queen's Hospital, is the largest private non-profit hospital in Honolulu, Hawaii. The institution was founded in 1859 by Queen Emma and King Kamehameha IV, and is l ...

References

1963 births 2020 deaths {{DEFAULTSORT:Matsuura, David People from Allahabad University of California, Davis alumni Hawaii politicians of Japanese descent Hawaii Democrats