John A. Burns

This article covers the Governor of Hawaii. For other people with the same name see John Burns (disambiguation)

John Anthony Burns
2nd Governor of Hawaii
In office December 3, 1962 – December 2, 1974
Lieutenant	William S. Richardson (1962–1966) Thomas Gill (1966–1970) George Ariyoshi (1970–1974)
Preceded by	William F. Quinn
Succeeded by	George Ariyoshi
Territorial Delegate to U.S. House of Representatives from Hawaii
In office January 3, 1957 – August 21, 1959
Preceded by	Elizabeth P. Farrington
Succeeded by	Daniel Inouye
Personal details
Born	March 30, 1909(1909-03-30) Fort Assinniboine, Montana
Died	April 5, 1975(1975-04-05) (aged 66) Honolulu, Hawaii
Political party	Democratic
Occupation	Detective
Profession	Police Officer
Religion	Roman Catholicism
Military service
Nickname(s)	Jack
Allegiance	United States
Service/branch	Army
Years of service	1927-1928

John Anthony Burns (March 30, 1909 – April 5, 1975) served as the second Governor of Hawaii from 1962 to 1974. Born in Fort Assinniboine, Montana, Burns was a resident of Hawaii from 1913.

From 1948 he led a nonviolent resistance movement, the Hawaii Democratic Revolution of 1954 through various leadership positions in the territorial Democratic Party, culminating in being chair of the territorial party in 1952. He is credited with building a coalition with the Democratic Party, Communist Party, 442nd Infantry Regiment, ILWU, and other organized labor and Japanese-Americans to strengthen the Democratic Party.

In 1956, he was elected Delegate from Hawaii. As delegate he played a key role in lobbying for Hawaii statehood, a goal that was achieved on March 12, 1959, when the statehood bill was signed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower. He sought to become the first Governor of the newly formed State of Hawaii but lost the election to Territorial Governor William F. Quinn

Three years later in 1962, Burns won the election to become governor. As Governor, Burns played a leading role in stimulating the state economy and attracting foreign tourism and investment, in the promote of tourism, in the promotion of Hawaii as a center for oceanography, in the construction of the new State Capitol building, in expanding the University of Hawaii and turning it into a first-class university attracting students and faculty from all over the world, in constructing the Honolulu Stadium to host the football games of the University of Hawaii and bowl games, in construction of an expanded Honolulu International Airport with a new reef-runaway, and in the construction of Interstate H-3.

He also supported of futuristics planning, establishing the Hawaii Commission on the Year 2000 which ultimately lead to the development of a Qualitry Growth Policy for the State of Hawaii. George Chaplin, Editor of the Honolulu Advertiser, served as Chairman of Hawaii's Commission on the Year 2000 while Rick Hopper, Hawaii's State Environmental Planning Coordinator, served as the staff person for the Hawaii Commission on the Year 2000 and was the principal author of the subsequent Quality Growth Policy for the State of Hawaii. For that effort, Bud Smelzer, editor of the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, served as Chairman of the advisory council.

Both the Commission on the Year 2000 and Hawaii's Quality Growth Policy were intended to supplement Hawaii's State Land-Use Plan. Finally, Governor Burns made Hawaii a leader in environmental management, establishing the Office of Environmental Quality Control within the Governor's Office to coordinate state environmental policy and to review environmental impact statements on all major state actions.

He was re-elected in 1966 and 1970, each time with a different lieutenant governor as his running mate. Burns became ill from cancer to the point of incapacity in October 1973 and Burns' third elected lieutenant governor, George Ariyoshi, became acting governor through the end of Burns' third term, before Ariyoshi was elected in his own right as governor for the term beginning in 1974.

The John A. Burns School of Medicine, an institution of the University of Hawaii at Manoa, is named for him. In 1997, Governor Ben Cayetano, named the newly completed Interstate H-3 in his honor.

References

• John A. Burns at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress

United States House of Representatives
Preceded by Elizabeth Pruett Farrington	Delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives from Territory of Hawaii's At-large congressional district January 3, 1957 - August 21, 1959	Succeeded by Representative: Daniel Inouye
Political offices
Preceded by William F. Quinn	Governor of Hawaii 1962 - 1974	Succeeded by George Ariyoshi