HONORARY DEGREES

The University conferred two honorary degrees during the ceremony. The Honorable Aumua Amata Coleman Radewagen, American Samoa Representative to the U.S. Congress received an honorary Doctor of Laws. Mr. Hidenobu “George” Takagi, founder and executive chairman of Takagi & Associates Incorporated received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters. From left to right: Radewagen, UOG President Robert Underwood, and Takagi.

 

 

 

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Amata Coleman Radewagen (Aumua Amata)

AMATA COLEMAN RADEWAGEN (AUMUA AMATA), Republican, was elected as American Samoa’s third Member of Congress on November 4, 2014.  She is the first woman elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from American Samoa.  She has been the most senior member of the Republican National Committee since 2012 and holds the orator (talking chief) title of Aumua from the village of Pago Pago in American Samoa where she is a registered voter.

Amata has been a community activist from American Samoa who volunteers with the hospital Women's Auxiliary, is a member of Business and Professional Women and is on the board of Goodwill Industries.  A 24-year cancer survivor, Amata has served as spokesperson for the Samoan Women's Health Project to promote cancer awareness and bring mammography to the territory, and has been liaison to the National Breast Cancer Coalition since 1993.  She also is a member of the board of Field House 100 American Samoa, a non-profit organization devoted to finding athletic scholarship opportunities in the states for talented high school athletes in American Samoa.

Appointed by President George W. Bush in 2001 as a White House Commissioner for Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI), where she chaired the Community Security Committee, Amata was the only Pacific Islander on the 15-member commission, which advised the President on AAPI issues and issued a landmark report on the health care needs of America's AAPI communities.   Amata has been the featured speaker over the years at numerous Asian Pacific American Heritage observances, including those at numerous military bases in CONUS and Europe. 

Amata also has been very involved in helping build democratic institutions abroad.  As a trainer since 1992, she has participated in missions to Kazakhstan, Cambodia, Kyrgyzstan and Morocco for the International Republican Institute and the International Foundation for Electoral Systems. In 2007 she conducted training in Washington for Iraqi and Uyghur women leaders.  Other international work has included participation in several Pacific regional conferences.

Amata was a member of the 1986 American Council of Young Political Leaders study tour of Australia and was elected a member of the ACYPL Alumni Council in 1987.  She was a member of the advance team for the historic 1990 Honolulu summit between President George H.W. Bush and Pacific Island leaders and assisted the president's delegation in the meeting; she also was Washington advance liaison for the vice president's 1989 visit to Pago Pago.

A member of the U.S. House of Representatives Majority Leadership Staff for eight years, Amata was Conference scheduling director and also supervised the database created to reach out to Asian Pacific and other minority aspirants for congressional staff positions.  She also served as scheduling director to U.S. Rep. Philip Crane (R-IL), the dean of the House Republican Conference at the time of his retirement.  Earlier in her career, she served at the U.S. Office of Economic Opportunity and the Department of Health, Education and Welfare.  She also was the first executive assistant to the first delegate-at-large to Washington from American Samoa. 

On the Republican National Committee (RNC), she has served on the Chairman’s Executive Council, the Committee on Arrangements for six national conventions and the Standing Committee on Rules.  She has attended eight Republican National Conventions, twice has been an Officer of the Convention and has been a member of the Convention Committee on Rules six times.  In 2013 she was appointed to the Chairman’s Commission on Convention Planning and, in recognition of her leadership in Pacific Islander communities nationally, received the RNC’s inaugural Trailblazer Award named for Mary Louise Smith, the first woman ever to serve as RNC chairman.

In 2003 she became the first and only Pacific Islander ever chosen as "Outstanding Woman of the Year" by the National Association of Professional Asian American Women (NAPAW). In 2008, she received the International Leadership Foundation’s Visionary Award and in 2013 was presented the “Inspirational Speaker” Award at the Ninth Annual Samoan Athletes Heart of Champions Ceremony in La Mesa, California.  

A life member of the Capitol Hill Club and a founding member of the American Samoa Society, other affiliations over the years have included the Guam Society of America and the Hawaii State Society as well as the Women's Foreign Policy Group in Washington and the Independent Women's Forum.  She also belongs to the Pan Pacific and Southeast Asia Women’s Association.

Amata’s biography appears in Who's Who in Politics, Who's Who in the South and Southwest and on the United States list of the Secretariat of the Pacific Community’s Register of Skilled Women in the Pacific.  She also was one of the 100 women profiled in The Women of American Samoa 1900-2000: A hundred years of development and achievements, a book prepared in conjunction with the centennial observances of American Samoa as a U.S. territory.  

Amata has a bachelor's degree from the University of Guam, with additional studies at Loyola-Marymount and George Mason Universities.  One of 13 children of the late Governor and Mrs. Peter Tali Coleman, she is married to Fred Radewagen.  Together they have three grown children and two grandchildren.
 

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Hidenobu “George” Takagi

Mr. Hidenobu “George” Takagi was born in 1942 in Hiroshima, Japan and received a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture and Livestock from Kobe University.

As a young man, Takagi originally dreamt of emigrating to Brazil, and even studied Portuguese as a university student. 

After graduating from Kobe University with a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture and Livestock from Kobe University, Takagi worked on behalf of a toothpaste manufacturer to conduct agricultural research on the possibility of growing mint in the Northern Marianas. As part of his research, Takagi traveled to Saipan to conduct soil surveys, and also took along mint seedlings to test the sustainability of mint cultivation. Unfortunately, the cultivation tests failed.

On his way home to Japan, Takagi transited through Guam and during a visit to a local supermarket, he noticed that near rotten vegetables were being sold at very high prices. This sight shocked him so much, that it lead him to believe that there was a business opportunity to grow and sell fresh vegetables on the island.

Takagi convinced seven of his college classmates and friends to join create a vegetable farm company in Guam to grow and sell various kinds of fresh fruits and vegetables. In 1967, Takagi made the move Guam, created “Green Farm Incorporated.”

By 1972 Green Farm and run out of money, and the company dissolved. While most of Takagi’s partners moved back to Japan, he could not cut ties with the island which he had grown to love. Takagi’s parents and family agreed to allow him to stay in Guam under the condition that he carry on the family tradition of selling insurance on the island. In May of 1973, Takagi became the Founder, Vice President, and local General Manager of “Universe Insurance Underwriters, Incorporated” (UIU), a managing general agent for the Yasuda Fire Marine Insurance Company in Japan. UIU provided provide a wide range of insurance solutions to Guam’s local business community. 

After 17 years as the Managing Director and Vice President of UIU, Takagi decided to go independent and create his own insurance company, Takagi & Associates partnering with Aioi Nissay Dowa Insurance Company, Limited in 1990. Last year, Takagi and Associates celebrated its 27th anniversary.

Takagi has received several awards and recognition to include: as President of the Japan Club of Guam, received commendations from the government of Japan through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for sponsoring various activities promoting friendship between Japan and other countries; as Chairman of the Peace Ring of Guam in 2006, received recognition from the 28th Guam Legislature Executive Committee (Resolution No. 194) for a Peace Ring project that brought 250 high school students from Japan to learn more about the war and pay respects to those who died during World War II; in 2009, received the Overseas Diplomatic Missions Award from the Japan Consulate General on Guam; in 2015, received the Order of the Rising Sun Gold and Silver Rays, one of Japan’s highest honors, from the Emperor of Japan for long and meritorious service in the promotion of Japanese culture and international friendship; in 2015, received recognition from the 33rd Guam Legislature (Resolution No. 124-33) for his company’s 25 years of dedication to the insurance industry on Guam; and in 2016, received recognition from the 33rd Guam Legislature (Resolution No. 265-33) for his dedication of service to the Japanese and local community and for receiving the Order of the Rising Sun Gold and Silver Rays.

Takagi is married to Noriko Takagi, with whom they have three grown children and three grandchildren. Takagi holds a second degree black belt in Judo and enjoys playing golf.