Owen Aspinall

Owen Stuart Aspinall ( born September 21, 1927 in Grand Junction, Colorado; † February 7, 1997 in Mesa County, Colorado ) was an American politician. Between 1967 and 1969 he was Governor of American Samoa.

Career

Owen Aspinall was the son of Congressman Wayne N. Aspinall (1896-1983) from Colorado. During the Second World War he served in the U.S. Army. Then he studied until 1949 at the University of Denver Anthropology. After a subsequent law degree from the American University in Washington DC and his 1955 was admitted as a lawyer, he began to work in this profession. Between 1957 and 1961 he was a deputy district attorney in Mesa County. After that he went to American Samoa, where he married a local woman in 1966. Between 1961 and 1962, he served there as Attorney General; in 1962 he was Secretary of State, which included the office of lieutenant governor. Politically, he was a member of the Democratic Party.

On August 1, 1967 Aspinall was appointed as the successor of Hyrum Rex Lee as the new Governor of American Samoa. This post he held until 31 July 1969. From the beginning it was a school reform clashes with the locals. In the course of the dispute, many teachers and school officials resigned. Then he said, a marriage between a woman from Samoa with a Korean. This led to new tensions. At that time there were in American Samoa also an escalating conflict between members of the Chinese and Korean minority.

After the accession of President Richard Nixon Owen Aspinall asked for his removal. This took place on July 31, 1969 with the simultaneous appointment of John Morse Haydon as his successor. He died on 7 February 1997.