Oren E. Long

Oren Ethelbirt Long (March 4, 1889 – May 6, 1965), was the tenth Territorial Governor of Hawai'i and served from 1951 to 1953. A member of the Hawai'i Democratic Party, Long was appointed to the office after the term of Ingram M. Stainback. After statehood was achieved he served in the United States Senate, one of the first two to represent Hawai'i in that body. Long was born in Altoona, Kansas and attended Johnson Bible College in Knoxville, Tennessee, University of Michigan, and Columbia University in New York City. He first came to Hawai'i in 1917 as a social worker in Hilo. He then held various educational positions in the public school system eventually becoming a superintendent from 1933 to 1946. He was appointed Governor of the Territory of Hawai'i by President of the United States Harry Truman in 1951 and served until 1953. On July 28, 1959 he was elected to one of the two Senate seats from the newly formed State of Hawaii, and took office on August 21, 1959. He chose not to run for re-election when his term expired in 1962, and was succeeded by then-Rep. Daniel Inouye. Long appeared as a contestant on What's My Line? shortly after taking office. After three rounds of questioning, the panel successfully guessed him to be the senator from Hawaii. He died in 1965 of a heart attack in Honolulu, Hawaii. Long remains the only U.S. Senator from Hawaii with no Asian ancestry.