IN MEMORIAM

Tosiwo Nakayama and Bethwel Henry. [Photo Credit: Micronesia Seminar]

Tosiwo Nakayama. [Photo Credit: Micronesia Seminar]

March 29, 2007 - The First President of Micronesia, Tosiwo Nakayama, 75, died in Hawaii at 4:30 p.m. at the Kaiser Hospital in Ewa.  Born on November 23, 1931, on Piserach Island, in Nomwunweito Atoll in Chuuk, Tosiwo Nakayama served in various leadership positions during the Trusteeship. After serving in the Congress of Micronesia, he was elected in May of 1979 as the first president of the newly formed states of Chuuk, Kosrae, Pohnpei and Yap, which would then shed the mantle of the U.N. Trust Territory administered by the United States and emerge as the Federated States of Micronesia.