Frank D. Padgett

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Frank David Padgett (March 9, 1923 – July 11, 2021) was an American judge who served on Hawaii’s Supreme Court from 1982 to 1992. Born in Vincennes, Indiana, he earned a scholarship to Harvard College but joined the U.S. Army Air Force during World War II to become a B-24 bomber pilot. In 1944–45, his crew carried out bombing missions in Southeast Asia. On January 1, 1945, they were shot down and Padgett was captured by the Japanese. He was held as a prisoner of war in Hanoi and then in Saigon for several months, endured torture and illness, and remained a prisoner until the war ended. After the war he spent time in military hospitals and earned a law degree from Harvard College in 1948. He moved to Honolulu and practiced law for about 30 years, including a notable early case defending the Kotohira Jinsha Shinto shrine against seizure by the government. In 1980 he was named to Hawaii’s Intermediate Court of Appeals, and in 1982 he was appointed to the Hawaii Supreme Court by Governor George Ariyoshi, serving until his retirement in 1992. He lived in Honolulu with his wife Sibyl and died there in 2021 at age 98.