deaths

Vicente D. Sablan On Saipan on March 22, aged 62.

Vicente D. Sablan served as mayor of Saipan for 14 con secutive years, from 1962 to 1976.

Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands Gov ernor Pedro P. Tenorio ordered flags of the CNMI to be flown at half mast in honor of Mr Sab lan, before a state funeral at Mt Carmel Church, with burial to follow at Chalan Kanoa Ceme tery.

Governor Tenorio said in a message to Sablan’s widow Felicidad and the late mayor’s family: “As your husband and father was a prominent citizen of our Commonwealth and our previous governmental sys tems, with his contributions to our political, social and econo mic development, we feel it is most proper that we offer to accord him a state funeral cere mony. While we strongly feel that such recognition and re spect is due to your father, we wish to undertake such a cere mony only on your family’s concurrence. ”

Mr Sablan was vice-president of the Saipan Grand Hotel at the time of his death, a position he had held since 1975.

He was elected to the Saipan Municipal Congress in 1949 and served there until 1957. He was elected mayor in 1962, and never lost an election for that position.

Sablan attended the Japan ese technical college on Saipan, and also graduated from the Japanese public school in 1938.

He worked for the naval government from 1945-50; and from 1950-54 he worked as a storekeeper for the Naval Sup ply Center. From 1954-57 he worked for the 360th Compo sive Service Company as com ptroller and timekeeper. He also worked from 1957-60 as chief guard for the Naval Technical Training Unit (NTTU), and as a storekeeper for the Trust Territory Govern ment from 1960-62.

Mataifale Toeainia In San Francisco on March 25,

aged 61.

Hundreds of mourners were expected from the South Pacific and Hawaii in San Francisco in early April for three funeral services honoring the Rev Mataifale Toeaina, the founder and guiding spirit of the 34congregation First Samoan Full Gospel Pentecostal Church.

Mr Toeaina was returing from New Zealand where he had gone to begin a new congregation when he became ill. He was hospitalised in Hawaii but then returned to his home in San Francisco where he died in hospital.

A native of Ofu, Manua, American Samoa, Mr Toeaina came to San Francisco in 1952 and was employed as a steel worker.

In 1962, while attending a church service in Oakland across the bay from San Fran cisco, he received what his wife called “a call from the Lord”.

He was directed, she said, “to lead his people as Moses led the people of Israel”. From the modest beginning of sharing quarters with an Episcopalian congregation in San Francisco’s working class Mission District, the church grew continuously.

The 34 congregations now in existence include churches in American Samoa, Western Samoa, New Zealand, Hawaii, Texas, Oklahoma, California and Stuttgart, West Germany, where a large number of Sa moans ' serve in the United States Army.

Mr Toeaina is survived by his wife, Lefete Tuiasosopo Toeaina; by two natural sons, and eight adopted children, by three sisters and two brothers.

The funeral services were all to be held in San Francisco, the city at which the churchman will be buried. Ralph Craib in San Francisco.

Georges Pisier In Paris on March 13, aged 75.

Mr Pisier at the time of his death was the honorary presi dent of New Caledonia’s His torical Studies Society (SEH).

Born in Saigon, he became a graduate of the National School of Overseas France, Paris, and gained degrees in Oriental lan

guages and law.

In his career in the adminis tration of Overseas France, he served in Indochina from 1933 to 1950, and in New Caledonia from 1950 to 1966. He was for a number of years in charge of the economic affairs section of New Caledonia’s administra tion.

Greatly interested in the his tory of New Caledonia, he became a foundation member of the SEH in 1969, and served on its administrative council from that time until his return to France a few months before his death.

The SEH published a num ber of his works on aspects of the history of the territory.

It said in an obituary tribute in its quarterly bulletin (No. 67, March-June, 1986): “In everything he did he showed the qualities of the true his torian: careful documentation, rigorous respect for the facts, and probity in their presenta tion. But with all this, he also had a talent for bringing to life the characters, events and places he was discussing.”

The obituary added that Georges Pisier was enamored of the sea ... a love reflected not only in subjects he chose to write about, but also in his frequent voyages in New Caledonian waters aboard his trimaran, Mareua 111.

PIM last had occasion to quote from Mr Pisier’s work in its issue of December 1985 (p 39), when it used sections of his admirable essay on the remarkable events of Septem ber-October, 1940, when an Australian warship played a key role in keeping New Caledonia on the Allied side in what 14 months later was to become the Pacific War.

Elsie Robinson In Suva on March 9, aged 91.

Mrs Robinson, formerly of Savusavu, was the widow of Fred Robinson and mother of Mrs Merle Thompson, of Nana nu-i-Ra Island.

She was the daughter of the late Mr and Mrs Robert Lepper, of Namawa plantation, Savusa vu East, and sister of Mrs Ann

Haynes (Maravu, Savusavu), Mrs Eileen (Bunny) Morgan (Australia), Miss Sarah Lepper (deceased), Alfred Lepper (de ceased), and Mrs Narvey Pal mer (deceased).

Her funeral was held at the (Anglican) Holy Trinity Cathed ral, Suva.

Frank Dig. Aldan On Saipan on March 17, aged 33.

Saipan’s former Fire Division chief, Mr Aldan was found dead at his home by two police officers who went to check on him after he failed to respond to repeated radio calls from the Department of Public Safety.

Fire fighters and a police honor guard escorted the body from Aldan’s father’s house in Garapan to the Kristo Rai Church before the burial at the Chalan Kanoa Cemetery. Gov ernor Pedro P. Tenorio and his wife Sophie also attended the funeral, as did members of the Fifth Legislature, government officials, family and friends.

Department of Public Safety Director Felix Cabrera said in a eulogy: “Frank only saw the best in everyone. He provided a wonderful balance in my life, which I will miss. And so ! will keep a special place in my heart for him.”