Robert Hoapili Baker

Robert Hoapili Kekaipukaʻala Baker (c. 1845/1847 – April 4, 1900) was a Hawaiian politician who served many political posts in the Kingdom of Hawaii, including Governor of Maui from 1886 to 1888. Baker and his brother became the models for the Kamehameha Statues.

Hoapili was born 1845 or 1847. in Waikapu, on the island of Maui. His parents were Ikekeleiaiku and Malie. Of high rank, he was a sixth-generation descendant of Līloa and the ancient kings of the islands of Maui and Hawaii. His brother was John Timoteo Baker. Under the auspices of Anglican priests Rev. William R. Scott and Archdeacon George Mason, Hoapili was educated at the Anglican boarding schools: the Luaehu School in Lahaina, Maui and the St. Alban's College in Honolulu. He was educated alongside Samuel Nowlein and Curtis P. Iaukea.

In 1879, Hoapili and his brother John Timoteo Baker became the models for the Kamehameha Statues by American sculptor Thomas Ridgeway Gould. The statue was commissioned by King Kalākaua in honor of the centennial of James Cook's landing in the Hawaiian Islands. The original statue was cast in 1880 but lost at sea. A second cast was installed in 1883 at Aliʻiōlani Hale while the recovered original cast was installed at Kapaʻau, Kohala, the birthplace of Kamehameha I. According to Walter M. Gibson, "[t]he artist has copied closely the fine physique of [Robert] Hoapili [Baker]...and it presents a noble illustration and a correct type of superior Hawaiian manhood".

At a young age, Hoapili show a strong interest in military affair. He began his service to the Hawaiian monarchy as a royal guard officer and became a lieutenant on the Household Guard of King Kalākaua. He was elected to the House of Representative, the lower house of the legislature of the kingdom, for the Kona district of Oahu (around Honolulu). He sat in on the legislative assembly of 1880. During this session, he proposed the creation of a governmentally funded study abroad program which funded the international study of a number of Hawaiian youths from 1880 to 1892 in Italy, Scotland, England, the United States, China and Japan. On August 12, 1884, Kalākaua appointed him as a member of the Privy Council of State.

From October 4, 1886 to August 23, 1888, Hoapili was appointed to succeed John Owen Dominis as Governor of Maui, and the adjacent islands of Molokai and Lanai. He did not hold the post for long. The royal island governorships were abolished by the legislature after the Bayonet Constitution. The king had vetoed the bill, but the new constitutional changes, which limited the king's executive power, allowed the legislature to override his opposition. Hoapili continued serving the king on his Privy Council. On May 15, 1889, he became aide de camp and a member of King Kalākaua's military staff with the military rank of Colonel. He continued as a privy councilor and advisor of the king.

Kalākaua with Colonel Macfarlane and Colonel Hoapili Baker aboard the USS Charleston in route to San Francisco, California

Regarded as a close friend and confidante, Hoapili accompanied the king on his final visit to the United States aboard the USS Charleston, on November 1890. Colonel George W. Macfarlane, the King's Chamberlain, was also part of the suite. While visiting Southern California, the king drank excessively and fell ill in January 1891 and had to be returned to San Francisco. The tearful Hoapili and Macfarlane were at his deathbed at San Francisco's Palace Hotel; he sat at the head of the bed clasping the king's left hand. Shortly before he breathed his last, Kalākaua's voice was recorded on a phonograph cylinder. Kalākaua died on January 20, 1891. The recording was given to Hoapili to take back to Honolulu and he reportedly "guarded it as sacredly as his own life". And it is now in the Bernice P. Bishop Museum.

Returning to Honolulu, his military and political commissions were renewed on March 7, 1891, and he remained on the military staff and Privy Council of State of Queen Liliuokalani until the overthrow of the monarchy in 1893. After the overthrow and the establishment of the Republic of Hawaii, Hoapili took the oath to the new regime. During this period, he served as member of the Board of Registration of Electors for Oahu. Otherwise, he remained outside the political arena and retired to a private life.

Hoapili died on April 4, 1900, at his residence in Pawaʻa, Honolulu. He had been ill for a long time before. The cause of the death was heart disease. The Hawaiian community remember favorably his friendship with Kalākaua and lifelong public service to Hawaii and his death was mourned by his family and friends. Local newspapers reported that his death "removes a man of distinguished ancestry and considerable public service". His remains lay in state at the Mililani Hall, and after a royal funeral befitting his rank, conducted under the rites of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, he was buried at the cemetery of the Kawaiahaʻo Church.

Hoapili was originally a member of the Anglican Church of Hawaii but in his later life he converted and joined the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. In the 1870s, Hoapili married Emma Kamakanoanoa Merseberg (1856–1913). Their children were Robert Hoapili Kahakumakalima Baker, Jr. (1874–1935), who served as Bandmaster for the Royal Hawaiian Band, Elizabeth Kahalelaukoa Baker (1877–1960), later Mrs. Charles W. Booth; Vito (Veto) Baker and Emma Baker, Mrs. James B. Nott. His widow Emma Baker was named sole devisee and executrix of his estate which largely consisted of landholdings in town lots and sugarcane fields around Lahaina on the island of Maui.