Hannibal M. Tavares (September 24, 1919 – January 17, 1998) was an American

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking ...

who served as the 2nd

Mayor of Maui The Mayor of Maui County is the chief executive officer of the County of Maui in the state of Hawaii. The Mayor has municipal jurisdiction over the islands of Kahoolawe, Lanai, Maui and Molokai. The Mayor of Maui County is the successor of t ...

from October 1979 until January 2, 1991. He was the longest-serving mayor of Maui.

Life

Tavares was born in Makawao, Maui,

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only state ...

, on September 24, 1919. In 1978, Maui Mayor

Elmer Cravalho Elmer Franklin Cravalho (February 19, 1926 – June 27, 2016) was an American politician and teacher. A member of the Democratic Party, Cravalho served as the first Mayor of Maui from 1969 to 1979 and the first Speaker of the Hawaii House o ...

won reelection to a second term, but he suddenly left office only months later. The vacancy left by Cravalho's resignation necessitated a special mayoral election. In October 1979, Hannibal Tavares won the special mayoral election to complete the remainder of Cravalho's term. Tavares went on to win reelection and became Maui's longest-serving mayor to date. He retired from office on January 2, 1991, and was succeeded by Republican

Linda Lingle Linda Lingle (''née'' Cutter; June 4, 1953) is an American politician, who was the sixth governor of Hawaii from 2002 until 2010. She was the first Republican governor of Hawaii since 1962. Lingle was also the state's first female and first J ...

. Tavares's daughter,

Charmaine Tavares Charmaine Tavares (born 1943 Hana, Hawaii) is an American politician and teacher. Tavares served as the Mayor of Maui from January 2007 to January 2011. She unsuccessfully sought a second four-year term in office in the 2010 Maui mayoral electio ...

, served as mayor of Maui from January 2, 2007, to January 2, 2011. Both are the descendants of

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

immigrants who settled in

. He died at Maui Memorial Hospital in

Wailuku, Hawaii Wailuku is a census-designated place (CDP) in and county seat of Maui County, Hawaii, United States. The population was 17,697 at the 2020 census. Wailuku is located just west of Kahului, at the mouth of the Iao Valley. In the early 20th cent ...

, on January 17, 1998, at the age of 78. A resident of Kula, Maui, Tavares was survived by his wife, Harriet Y.T; three children,

, Sharon Klaschka, and Gary Tavares; three sisters, Helen Medeiros, Margaret Roberts and Sophie Stone; five grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

References

1919 births 1998 deaths Mayors of Maui County People from Maui American people of Portuguese descent 20th-century American politicians {{Hawaii-mayor-stub