In Memory of Dr. Henry “Hank” Oyama
Memorial services for Dr. Henry “Hank” Oyama were held today at St. Augustine’s Cathedral,
192 S. Stone Ave, with hundreds of people from the Tucson community in attendance.
Dr. Oyama was 86 years old and passed away on March 20. He was born and raised here in
Tucson, and at age 15 was innocently interned along with 120,000 other Japanese Americans
in relocation camps in the western United States. Hank was sent to such a camp north
of here in Poston, Arizona with his mother and sister. He was drafted into the U.S. Army
after spending 15 months in that internment camp, and later enlisted in the U.S. Air Force,
from which he retired as Lt. Colonel.
After returning to Tucson he earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees at the University of Arizona in education, and taught at Pueblo High School for 18 years. Following that he was hired at Pima Community College as director of bilingual and international studies, later became Associate Dean of that program, and eventually retired from PCC in 1991 as Vice President Emeritus. He was bilingual in Spanish and was well know for his advocacy for Hispanic students in Tucson, and established the Hispanic Student Endowment Fund. In 2003 an elementary school in Tucson was named after him at 2700 S. La Cholla Blvd.
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In 1959 he and his Caucasian college sweetheart Mary Ann Jordan challenged Arizona’s
anti-miscegenation law which prohibited a Caucasian person from marrying someone
Asian American. The actual statute stated: “The marriage of a person of Caucasian
blood with a Negro, Mongolian, Malay or Hindu is null and void.” Hank and Mary Ann
became plaintiffs in the ACLU of Arizona’s first case, to challenge this law, which
was stuck down by Pima County Superior Court Judge Herbert Krucker, but then
appealed to the Arizona Supreme Court. Before that court could rule, the Arizona
legislature repealed that law, so Hank and Mary Ann’s case was dismissed as moot.
http://tucsoncitizen.com/community/2013/03/25/in-memory-of-dr-henry-hank-oyama/
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Quite a life.
