{{Short description|Marshallese politician}} {{Infobox officeholder | name = Dwight Heine | image = Dwight Heine.png
| office1 = District Administrator of the Marshall Islands | term1 = 1965–1969 | predecessor1 = Peter Tali Coleman | successor1 = Robert D. Law
| office2 = Speaker of the TTPI House of Representatives | term2 = 1965 | successor2 = Bethwel Henry
| office3 = Member of the TTPI House of Representatives | term3 = 1965 | successor3 = Ekpap Silk | constituency3 = Marshalls 6th District
| birth_date = 12 October 1919<ref name=DSB>[https://books.google.com/books?id=iaVBsBMDbUcC&pg=PA138 ''The Department of State Bulletin, Volume 31, Part 1''], p138</ref> | birth_place = Ebon Atoll, South Seas Mandate | death_date = {{death date and age|1984|11|13|1919|10|12|df=y}}<ref name=HA>"Dwight Heine, Micronesian leader, dies at 65" ''The Honolulu Advertiser'', 17 November 1984</ref> | death_place = Majuro, Marshall Islands }}
'''Dwight Heine''' (12 October 1919 – 13 November 1984) was a Marshallese politician. He was both a member and speaker of the Marshall Islands Congress, Congress of Micronesia and the House of Representatives of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, before serving as District Administrator of the Marshall Islands from 1965 to 1969.
==Biography== Heine was born in October 1919 on Ebon Atoll, the grandson of Australian-born Congregationalist missionary Carl Heine.<ref name=JT>Jack A. Tobin (2002) ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=yUSHbrkbYSwC&pg=PA374 Stories from the Marshall Islands: Bwebwenato Jān Aelōn̄ Kein]'' p374</ref> He had four siblings, including the educator and activist Mary Lanwi.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last1=Loeak |first1=Anono Lieom |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mOw7zK9hHLoC |title=Life in the Republic of the Marshall Islands |last2=Kiluwe |first2=Veronica C. |last3=Crowl |first3=Linda |date=2004 |publisher=University of the South Pacific Centre |isbn=978-982-02-0364-8 |language=en |chapter=Mission School to National Mission: Creating the Handicraft Industry}}</ref> He was homeschooled until the age of 14 and then attended a mission school in Jabat Island, before progressing to the advanced school on Kosrae, where he studied from 1936 to 1938.<ref name=JT/> He then returned to the Marshall Islands to work as a teacher.<ref name=DSB/> However, after a year teaching he was required by the Japanese to work in phosphate pits, where he spent most of World War II.<ref name=DSB/> During the war his parents were executed by the Japanese and he acted as a scout for American troops as they invaded the territory.<ref name=HA/> After the Americans won control of the islands, he worked as a guide and interpreter.<ref name=DSB/>
Heine then became the first Micronesian to attend an American college on a scholarship, studying at the University of Hawaiʻi between 1948 and 1950.<ref name=PIM2/> After a brief stint teaching at the Pacific Islands Central School, he became a superintendent of primary schools in the Marshall Islands, as well as president of the Marshall Islands Import Export Company.<ref name=MR1/> In 1952 he was awarded a United Nations fellowship to study public school administration, spending time in Fiji, New Zealand and Samoa.<ref name=MR1>[http://www.pacificdigitallibrary.org/cgi-bin/pdl?e=q-000off-pdl--00-2--0--010-TE--4-------0-1l--10en-50---20-text-%22dwight+heine%22--00-3-1-00bySR-0-0-000utfZz-8-00&a=d&c=pdl&srp=0&srn=0&cl=search&d=HASH1ff266d19ae20826474252.5 Heine begins work on U.N. Fellowship] ''Micronesian Monthly'', November 1952</ref><ref name=DSB/> He later became District Educational Administrator for the Marshalls.<ref>[http://www.pacificdigitallibrary.org/cgi-bin/pdl?e=q-000off-pdl--00-2--0--010-TE--4-------0-1l--10en-50---20-text-%22dwight+heine%22--00-3-1-00bySR-0-0-000utfZz-8-00&a=d&c=pdl&srp=0&srn=0&cl=search&d=HASHb733ef8031bae3799be0d1.9 "Station WSZO Broadcasting"] ''Micronesian Reporter'', May–June 1959</ref> During the 1950s he also appeared at the United Nations to protest atomic bomb tests at Bikini Atoll,<ref name=PIM>[https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-334941320/view?partId=nla.obj-335091237#page/n64/mode/1up Dwight Heine] ''Pacific Islands Monthly'', January 1985, p65</ref> after which he was temporarily removed from his position in the civil service.<ref name=HA/> He returned to the University of Hawaiʻi in 1957, graduating with a BA in 1959,<ref name=JT/> becoming the first Micronesian to earn a college degree.<ref name=PIM2/> He was later awarded an honorary doctorate by Oakland City College.<ref name=PIM2/>
He was elected to the Marshall Islands Congress, serving as its president. In 1961 he also became a member of the new Congress of Micronesia, and was its first Speaker. When the body was converted to the Congress of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands in January 1965, he contested the first elections to the lower house, the General Assembly (later renamed the House of Representatives), and was elected from the Marshalls 6th District. Following the elections, he was elected Speaker of the Assembly. However, in October 1965 he was appointed District Administrator of the Marshall Islands, resigning his seat in Congress.<ref name=TT>[https://books.google.com/books?id=EHX2SMi0hRQC&pg=PA198 ''Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands''] Office of United Nations Political Affairs, pp198</ref> His appointment made him the first Micronesian to hold such office.<ref name=PIM2/>
He served as District Administrator until 1969, after which he became special consultant to the High Commissioner, a position he held until he retired in 1980.<ref name=JT/><ref name=HA/> He died in Majuro in November 1984 at the age of 65.<ref name=PIM2>[https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-334941320/view?partId=nla.obj-335072419#page/n24/mode/1up Dweight Heine, Micronesian leader par excellence] ''Pacific Islands Monthly'', January 1985, p24</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Heine, Dwight}} Category:1919 births Category:University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa alumni Category:Marshallese expatriates in the United States Category:Marshallese educators Category:Marshallese civil servants Category:Members of the Legislature of the Marshall Islands Category:Speakers of the Legislature of the Marshall Islands Category:Members of the Congress of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands Category:District administrators of the Marshall Islands Category:1984 deaths Category:Marshallese people of Australian descent