Charles E. King

Charles Edward King (January 29, 1874 – February 27, 1950) was a Hawaiian-born American educator, Hawaii territorial legislator, and a songwriter who is most widely known as the composer of “Ke Kali Nei Au”. King was inducted into the Hawaiian Music Hall of Fame in 1995. Music historian George Kanahele regarded King as the “Dean of Hawaiian Music”, although this sobriquet is more associated with John Kameaaloha Almeida. Teaching and legislative career Charles E. King was born of part Hawaiian ancestry, at the Nuʻuanu Valley estate of Queen Emma of Hawaii, in Honolulu, to Walter and Mary Ann Brash. He was adopted by his maternal grandfather John Lewis King after the death of his mother, and was christened by his godmother Queen Emma at St. Andrew’s Cathedral. King was educated in public schools in Hawaii and the Kamehameha School for Boys. In 1914, Kamehameha alumni circulated a petition requesting that King be named school principal, but Ernest C. Webster was chosen instead. When Bishop Estate trustee Samuel Mills Damon resigned in 1916, the trustees named former teacher William Williamson, a white man, to fill the vacancy. As established by the original trust deed, any trustee app