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DOI officials offer condolences
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Posted on May 20 2005
Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Interior David B. Cohen and Nik Pula, director of the Office of Insular Affairs, both issued statements of condolences to the family of the late Nora Coleman, who passed away Sunday, May 1, 2005 in Honolulu at the age of 85.
“We are very saddened by this loss, first and foremost, on a personal level but also as a matter of historical importance to the Pacific Islands,” said Cohen. “Nora Coleman was the first, first lady of American Samoa in the modern era of self-government, and was beloved by so many. Our prayers are with the Coleman family.”
For his part, Pula said: “We bid farewell to Nora, who now joins her husband Uifa’tali Peter Coleman on the other side, with our gratitude and well wishes on her journey. One can almost feel the wind behind one’s back standing at a beach looking out in the Pacific ocean viewing a speck of an alia (canoe) far out on the horizon, saying farewell to a generation whose shoulders we stand on and whose wisdom and sacrifice all of us benefit from. Our deepest condolences to Amata and all the surviving children and family of Nora and Peter Coleman.”
Coleman’s funeral was set for 12:30pm yesterday, May 20, at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Honolulu, Hawaii. She was scheduled to be buried alongside her husband at the Diamond Head Memorial Park. (PR)
