Prominent Hilo attorney Gerard Lee Loy died Friday of an apparent heart attack. He was 67.
“He was the champion of everybody,” Lee Loy’s wife, Susan, said Monday. “He would help anybody, regardless of their monetary position or place in the community. If they needed help, he was right there helping them.
“He also had the best sense of humor, and that’s what attracted me to him.”
Lee Loy collapsed unexpectedly Friday morning near his downtown Hilo office. He was taken to Hilo Medical Center, where he died.
His passing came as a shock to family and friends, and the news spread quickly on social media.
Lee Loy testified April 26 before the University of Hawaii Board of Regents against construction of the Thirty Meter Telescope atop Mauna Kea.
“He was equally comfortable walking barefoot around town as he was in a $1,000 suit in a courtroom,” said Luahiwa Namahoe, Lee Loy’s daughter. “He was larger than life. Nothing was beyond him or beneath him. … Dad lived as he saw fit, and he had the biggest heart.”
Lee Loy’s other daughter, Kathy Leonard, said she’s gratified by the outpouring of aloha from the community.
“I’ve run into strangers and friends and past acquaintances who’ve come up to me and said, ‘Sorry to hear of your loss, and your father really helped me’ — then insert a story where my father gave somebody the shirt of his back or gave of his time,” she said. “He helped a lot of people.”
As a lawyer, Lee Loy is best known for winning freedom for Tetsuya “Grizzly” Yamada in 2004. In the retrial of Yamada, who’d served seven years on a double-homicide conviction, Lee Loy convinced a jury Yamada falsely confessed to protect the actual murderer, Yamada’s wife.
“My dad saw things that everyone else missed, and he was fearless,” Namahoe said.
Lee Loy, who loved the ocean, was a U.S. Navy veteran who served in the Vietnam War. He also was an avid canoe paddler and volunteer coach for the Keaukaha and Puna canoe clubs.
“I think he’s tried to recruit everybody that he’s ever met to paddle a canoe,” said Chris Leonard, Lee Loy’s son-in-law, who noted Lee Loy also did “a ton” of pro bono legal work.
Lee Loy, who grew up in Keaukaha, was the eldest of 12 children, all of whom became professionals.
“He always measured himself by Keaukaha,” Namahoe said. “He was very proud of his roots there.”
Services are pending. Survivors will be listed in an obituary to be published later.
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
