The Hon. Martin Pence

From Kyra Subbotin (Pence law clerk 1983):  I just came across this website and can confirm that I clerked for Judge Pence in 1983 with Tom Vinje (aka the mad Norwegian). I was honored to be a clerk and work for such an esteemed judge. I have many memories of my year, including Judge Pence eating lunch in the cafeteria with us most days. I am a tall woman, but I had to lope to keep up with his stride down the hall. He always had soup and buttermilk (I could never understand his affinity for buttermilk, but maybe it was the secret to his longevity?) He was well-liked by all of the courthouse staff and knew everyone’s name. He shared with us his story of coming to Hawaii (from Kansas, as I recall) and immediately falling in love with the islands and vowing never to go home. He was also an avid hunter and despite his small stature, could shoot deer deep in a ravine on Lanai and then pack the bloody carcass uphill. Not a fun image, but a powerful one nonetheless. And he was very proud of his work to get the federal courthouse built. Truly a memorable and big personality.

Thank you for sharing (and sorry I am so late getting to your comment). – The Editor 🙂

Thank you also to William Chillingworth, who reached out to me in the comments (a few years ago, I’m embarrassed to say) with some information about his clerkship. Here is a link to an interview he did with PBS in 2016, in which he pays tribute to Judge Pence and describes his own experiences as a judge. https://www.pbshawaii.org/tag/william-chillingworth/ Thank you, Your Honor!

Thanks to recent emails from Thomas Vinje and Michael Davis, I have updated my list of Judge Pence law clerks. It also seemed time to update the current status of everyone already on the list as best I could based on Google searches. I’m still missing clerkship years for a number of individuals – they don’t list that information on their law firm bios. In any case, I’m grateful to Thomas and Michael for contacting me. I would greatly appreciate receiving personal memories from his law clerks (I would add “former” but that would be too obvious.)

In my research to locate Pence’s former clerks, I came across this Honolulu Advertiser article – now old news – on the retirement of Walter Chinn, who served as Clerk of the Court in the US District Court.  It describes one of his early exchanges with Judge Pence:

Chinn, a graduate of Roosevelt High School and the University of Hawai’i who holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration, worked several jobs before the late U.S. District Judge Martin Pence hired him as his courtroom deputy clerk and two years later named him clerk of the court.

Chinn recalled Pence advising him, “Walter, keep your shoes clean and you’ll be OK.” Being rather naive, Chinn polished his shoes each week.

That is surely an accurate memory of Judge Pence!

Finally getting around to updating the list of Pence law clerks (see link to list above) based on information I received from Sean Maloney, who kindly called and emailed from Wisconsin (I’m embarrassed to say when).

Here is a copy of a 1985 Honolulu Star-Bulletin article featuring Judge Pence.  It’s a PDF from the only copy I have and I have not been able to find it in SB archives, so my apologies if it’s difficult to read.  Worse, I don’t have the complete article (missing page D-2)!  If any readers have access to the full article, I would appreciate receiving a full copy.

Of course, it opens with a hunting story!

Just posted a new page listing Judge Pence’s law clerks.  It is based on a Google search I did a year or so ago and, admittedly, is incomplete.  I would be happy to make corrections and additions – just let me know.

This from the web page of the South Hilo Rotary Club:

Charter member Paul Schattauer had another view of why this club was formed.

Martin Pence was a strong Democrat, while the president of their Hilo Club was a strong Republican. When Pence
applied for membership in the Hilo Club, he was turned down; the Hilo Club had too many lawyers already. So Pence
decided to form his own Rotary Club!

The Hilo Club set very strict boundaries on the new club’s geographic area of eligibility, which only left a small area in
which it could recruit members. It is interesting to note that not one of the members of the Rotary Club of South Hilo
was a transfer from the Hilo Club.

Back then, most of the membership in Rotary was recruited by appealing to management of a business that they should have an employee (0) in Rotary.

Although the club was chartered on November 2, 1956, charter night festivities were held at the old American Legion
Clubhouse at Reeds Bay on January 11, 1957. Martin Pence, a prominent Hilo attorney was the first president. The
Reverend Abraham Akaka, pastor of Haili Church, gave the invocation and blessing. South Hilo’s Rotary meetings were
held at the old Naniloa Hotel, which was later destroyed by a tsunami.

We recently returned from a 10 day visit to the Big Island and, for the first time, visited the Pacific Tsunami Museum (www.tsunami.org), which chronicles in pictures, videos and stories the tsunamis that hit Hilo in 1946 and 1960.  I’d heard about the tsunamis, but had never before sought to understand their impact -the tragedies and courage of the saviors and the saved.  

The video produced by the museum includes snippets of Martin Pence being interviewed since he lived there at the time.  Unfortunately, the snippets do not include his personal experiences of the tsunamis, but they do convey his wit and sense of humor.  I will try to find a transcript or video of the entire interview.