John Radcliffe, who was the longest-serving executive director of the Hawaii State Teachers Association from 1975 to 1988, died Tuesday night after a long battle with cancer.
A passionate and effective death with dignity advocate in his later years, Radcliffe, 78, passed away at his Makiki home after ending his life with prescribed medication, friends said.
Radcliffe found out his cancer was terminal when he was diagnosed in 2014. He was initially given six to 24 months to live, but in characteristic tough-like-a-bulldog fashion, he survived for six years, far beyond that initial estimate of time he had left.
HSTA Executive Director Wilbert Holck said, “Over his 13 years at HSTA, John guided us through very turbulent times. He was a fierce advocate for public education, our children, and our teachers.
“John continued to fight for what was right and his greatest victory was securing the passage of Hawaii’s Our Care Choice Act that allowed those with less than six months to live a choice about when they wanted to die,” Holck added.
“I’m the most grateful guy in the world,” Radcliffe said in a June interview with the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. “My life has been wonderful. My family is solid.”
“Coming to Hawaii was the best thing that ever happened to me,” he told the newspaper, adding, “Well, I have a number of ‘best things’ that happened to me. But being accepted here was one of them.”
Radcliffe came to Hawaii in 1975 from Virginia to head the HSTA, a position he held for 13 years. One of his first steps was to demand safe working conditions for teachers in Hawaii schools, describing threats of violence and substandard facilities.
Among his great stories was heading of the union in 1978 when the state finally paid a settlement to John and Aiko Reinecke, who had been famously fired from their jobs as teachers in 1948 because of reported ties to the American Communist Party, the Star-Advertiser reported.
Joan Husted, who was HSTA’s executive director until she retired in 2007 recalled, “John was a very creative thinker and a good mentor to a number of people,”
“When John came on board in 1975, we did not do any political action work,” said Husted.
“John made it very clear to the board and the teachers and the staff that if we wanted to make things better for schools, kids, for teachers, that we had to get involved politically,” she added.
He remembered everybody and stored that information in his head, names, awards, their likes and dislikes, which made him a great networker and someone who connected with people easily, Husted said.
He was also a man of good humor.
“He gave me a sign, a poster for my office that said, ‘Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they aren’t out to get you,’” Husted said.
During Radcliffe’s years at the helm of HSTA, Husted served as the union’s director of field services and chief negotiator and became deputy executive director.
Radcliffe created a working relationship with the other public employee unions in Hawaii, she said, and he was responsible for merging the Hawaii Federation of Teachers merged into HSTA.
Earlier this year, Radcliffe made an endorsement in the primary race for Honolulu mayor, writing his own copy for a campaign ad for Colleen Hanabusa.
“You know why I endorsed her? She supported medical marijuana and medical aid in dying, she’s strong with the unions, and because she called me up and asked. Nobody else asked,” he told the Star-Advertiser.
Radcliffe started out as a teacher, became head of the teachers union, and later served as associate executive director of the University of Hawaii Professional Assembly (UHPA) from 1991 to 2007, the professors union. He then became a full-time lobbyist, establishing a firm that took on dozens of clients each legislative session, including UHPA, which he lobbied for until 2016. He may have spent more time at the state Capitol than some in elected office.
After he was diagnosed with terminal cancer, Radcliffe became an advocate for legalizing medical aid in dying in Hawaii, standing as an example of someone who wants to have a choice in how his death plays out.
“Fighting cancer includes not letting the son of a bitch win by controlling death,” he said.
The effort to pass the Our Care, Our Choice Act was successful.
Asked by a reporter whether he had any big items left on his to-do list two months ago, Radcliffe said he’d like his ashes scattered from a helicopter over the state Capitol on the opening day of the next legislative session. The reporter wasn’t sure if he was joking or not, knowing his kolohe (rascal) sense of humor.