Is “physician politician” an oxymoron? Some wondered when Duke Bainum, a declared candidate for Mayor of the City and County of Honolulu, recently visited the students of Windward Adventist School. A former councilman, Dr. Duke Bainum, a physician by training, hopes to become the first mayor of Honolulu to have an M.D. after his name.

Duke, as he prefers to be called, explained that “90 percent of a person’s basic values are formed in the first 10 years of life.” He shared how he was very grateful to his family for teaching him about “what’s important in life.”

These early lessons, he shared, helped him “survive through hard times and thrive on good times.” As the Windward students could tell from his accent—sort of a modified Southern—Duke “didn’t have the good fortune to be born in Hawaii.” He was born in Maryland and grew up near Hot Springs, Ark. There, he and his brother “plucked and dressed the chickens, hoed the corn and did all of the sorts of things that are part of country farm life.”

Because he now is an M.D., it is hard to believe that his early education was in a two-room country school. His Grandma Florence encouraged him to use his spare time to read—biographies of Abraham Lincoln, George Washington and Franklin D. Roosevelt.

“I was impressed to see he likes reading books about great men and about American history,” shared Roland, an eighth grade student at Windward. “He said that there were so many true histories and biographies to read that he didn’t have time for fiction.”

In 1955, using the family’s small savings and borrowing the rest, his parents bought the lumber, nails and glass and built from scratch a 14-room motel in Ocean City, Md. During the summer, he would leave the farm to work at the motel, watering the grass and picking up cigarette butts. He later “graduated” to beach boy and his favorite job—lifeguarding. He also spent countless hours making up rooms and handling the front desk.

“That little motel grew into one of the largest family hotel chains in the country,” explained Raquelle, a fifth-grader, who presented him with a beautiful ginger lei.

Bainum earned his undergraduate degree from what is now Southern Adventist University in Tennessee and later an M.D. from the University of Maryland. The University of Hawaii Surgical Residency Program at Queen’s Medical Center brought him to Honolulu. An interest in community service led to elective office, and after 12 years was term limited off of the city council. Now he is looking to be the next mayor of this 900,000-person city in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

But for the students, he was just Dr. Duke, a community leader who affirmed the importance of character, the centrality of faith and the value of hard work. His talk made clear to them that one could be a doctor and an elected official.

Windward teacher Deborah Dahl arranged for his visit. Past visitors to Windward Adventist School have included Miss America Angela Baraquio, UH football coach June Jones, and Mrs. Ramona Harris, first lady of the City of Honolulu.