Melvin M. Masuda ’65

Mel died March 19, 2025, in Honolulu, Hawaii.

He was born in Puunene, Hawaii, and attended Roosevelt High School there. At Princeton, he was in the Woodrow Wilson School. He was a member of Campus Club and editor of The Daily Princetonian. He was the winner of the DeWitt Clinton Poole Scholarship Prize and the Princetonian Best Newswriting Award.

After graduating from Princeton he attended Yale Law School, where he was on the Yale Law Journal. He then clerked for Chief Justice William Richardson. During that time, Mel joined the Army Reserve, where he served for six years. Because of his work in Washington, he was invited to study at Harvard Kennedy School, where he earned a master’s degree, giving him a degree from Princeton, Yale, and Harvard.

As an attorney in private practice, he was a lifelong advocate for native Hawaiians. As an educator, Mel nurtured generations of legal minds, serving as a professor of law at Hawaii Pacific University for 25 years. There, he established legal programs, mentored students, and created innovative courses to ensure that his students understood that knowledge was a tool for empowerment.

Mel is survived by his wife, Karen; son Makamae and his wife Allison; daughter Kaiewa and her husband Matthew Muranaka; and grandchildren Ikaika, Kapono, Kahiau, and Keolaloa.