President Tosiwo Nakayama
Former Presidents 18 October 2018
Tosiwo Nakayama of Onoun(formerly known as Ulul), Chuuk, was born on November 23, 1931 on Piherarh Island in Namonwito Atoll. He attended Truk Intermediate School in 1948-1949 and the Pacific Islands Central School in 1951-1953. In 1955 he was awarded a Trust Territory scholarship which enabled him to study first at the University High School and then for two years at the University of Hawaii. Upon his return from Hawaii to Chuuk (formerly known as Truk) in 1958, he became Principal Clerk, Supervisor of Adult Education, and subsequently, was appointed Political and Economic Advisor to the District Administrator. In 1964 he was appointed to the position of Assistant District Administrator for Public Affairs, Truk District then.
Nakayama spent a life-time of public service in various prominent positions and roles during the United States' Administration of the UN Trust of the Pacific Islands. These positions and responsibilities included key roles in the Congress of Micronesia and the interim Congress of the Federated States of Micronesia. Nakayama served in the Truk District Legislature as a member from Onoun and was elected President in 1960-1961. In June of 1961, Nakayama served as Micronesian Advisor to the United States Delegation to the United Nations Trusteeship Council. He was elected to the Council of Micronesia in 1962 and 1963.
On September 10, 1963, he married to Miter Haruo in Chuuk.
In January 1965 he was elected to the House of Delegates of the Congress of Micronesia. At the House of Delegates' organizational meeting he was elected its President. Nakayama was re-elected to the Senate in 1968 while on leave of absence from his job as Assistant District Administrator for Public Affairs for Truk District to continue degree work at the University of Hawaii.
He was a member of the Truk District Scholarship Committee, the Truk Review Advisory Board, the Truk District Recreational Committee, the Truk Board of Education, as well as many other boards and committees.
Nakayama was elected to the Congress of Micronesia in 1965 and served as its Senate President in every term except one, until the Congress of Micronesia was replaced by the FSM Constitutional government in 1979. He also served as president of the 1975 Micronesian Constitutional Convention where he demonstrated leadership and statesmanship that contributed a great deal to the framing of the constitution of the Federated States of Micronesia.
In May 1979, the members of the Congress of the Federated States of Micronesia, acting for the first time under the constitution of the FSM, unanimously elected Nakayama the nation's first President , and re-elected him for a second term, which ended in 1987. Thus far, Nakayama is the only FSM president that has served two terms.
In October of 1987, he took a position with the Bank of Guam, Chuuk Branch, as the Vice President for Governmental Affairs, a position he held until December of 2003.
Nakayama's leadership, profound humility, commitment and guidance during the nation's early efforts towards self-government earned him the respect of his colleagues, the people of the Federated States of Micronesia, and the international community. He is one of the nation's highly revered and deeply respected Founding Fathers.
A very keen fisherman with an equally keen sense of humor, President Nakayama was married to the late Miter Haruo of Weno, Chuuk and is survived by his ten children and numerous grandchildren. He was 75 when he passed away at the Hawaii Medical Center West in Honolulu on March 29, 2007.
President John Richard Haglelgam
John Richard Haglelgam, the Second President of the Federated States of Micronesia, was born on August 10, 1949 on the island of Eauripik in Yap State. He attended Eauripik Elementary School and the Outer Islands High School on Ulithi, Yap from 1964-1968. In 1968, he received an AFS scholarship to spend his senior year at Beaverton High School in Beaverton, Oregon. After graduating from Beaverton High School in 1969, Mr. Haglelgam enrolled at the University of Hawaii where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science in 1973. He attended Willamette University School of Law in Salem, Oregon for one year and returned home to run for a seat in the Congress of Micronesia House of Representatives to represent the Outer Islands of Yap. After serving a term in the House of Representatives, Haglelgam returned to the University of Hawaii at Manoa as a graduate student sponsored by the East West Center. Haglelgam was at the University of Hawaii when he was re-elected to a second term in the House of Representatives. He received a Master of Arts degree in Political Science in the spring of 1977. One year after his unsuccessful bid for reelection in 1991, Mr. Haglelgam attended Harvard Kennedy School where he received a Master degree in Public Administration (MPA) in 1993.
Mr. Haglelgam began his sixteen years of service to the people of Micronesia in 1974 when he successfully ran for a seat in the House of Representatives of the Congress of Micronesia. Mr. Haglelgam was a member of the House of Representatives until the ratification of the FSM Constitution in 1978. He was a member of the Interim Congress until the election for members of the First Congress of the Federated States of Micronesia in 1979. After the late Petrus Tun's election to the FSM vice presidency, Mr. Haglelgam ran successfully as a write-in candidate for the vacant Yap's at-large seat in the FSM Congress. Haglelgam served two terms in the FSM Congress. During his last term, he served as the floor leader. On May 12, 1987, the Fifth FSM Congress elected Haglelgam as the second president of the Federated States of Micronesia to succeed the late Tosiwo Nakayama.
Mr. Haglelgam also served as Chairman of the FSM Delegation to the United Nations Law of the Sea Conference. He attended many meetings of the Conference on behalf the Federated States of Micronesia. He served as a staff member of the Micronesian Constitutional Convention in 1977. In 1981, he served as the Vice President of the Yap State Constitutional Convention. In addition, he served as the president of the 3rd FSM Constitutional Convention in 2001.
After his unsuccessful reelection bid in 1991, Haglelgam became an instructor in the Division of Social Science at the national campus of the College of Micronesia-FSM. In February 1992, the Board of Regents of the College appointed him as Regent Professor. In the summer of 1992, Haglelgam took an educational leave from the college to attend the John Fitzgerald Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University as a Mason Fellow. At the College of Micronesia-FSM, Haglelgam teaches government and politics, Micronesian history, world history, and East Asian history.
During the fall semester of 1995, Haglelgam taught at MARC at the University of Guam as a visiting professor. In 1997, he spent three months at the Australian National University as the Distinguish Senior Pacific Scholar.
Mr. Haglelgam is married to Paula Ori from Uman Island in Chuuk Lagoon. They have two sons, William Haglelgam and John P. Ori and one daughter, Tess P. Haglelgam.
John R. Haglelgam is an active member of the Harvard Alumni Association (HAA) and the East-West Center Association.
President Jacob Nena
Born on October 10, 1941 in Lelu, Kosrae State. President Nena attended Lelu Elementary School, Kosrae Junior High, and Intermediate School in Ponape where he graduated in 1961.
In 1961 to 1964, President Nena attended PICS High School and in 1964-1968 attended the College of Guam where he graduated with a BA degree in Political Science and a minor in English and Economics. In the summer of 1971, he was in a East-West Center grant and at the same time working for a graduate degree at the University of Hawaii. He graduated with a MA degree in Public Administration and Business Management at the University of Hawaii (Manoa) in 1972. He was the fourth Vice President of the Federated States of Micronesia for a second term in 1995. He became Acting President on November 8, 1996 when the FSM Congress members declared President Olter unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office after suffering from a cerebral vascular accident that occurred on July 16, 1996.
He became the Fourth President of the Federated States of Micronesia on May 8, 1997, 180 days after President Olter was unable to actively assume the duties of President, as provided in that declaration.
President Nena began his working career by teaching at PICS and was Political Affairs Officer for Ponape District from July 1969 to December 1969. In 1970, he became the Acting Distad Rep for Kosrae, and Deputy Distad Rep from 1970 to 1977. Nena became the first elected Governor for Kosrae State in 1979.
Nena was a member of the Micronesian Political Status and Transition Commission from 1979 to 1981, and in 1982 he accompanied President Nakayama to the South Pacific Forum. He was chairman of Lelu Municipal Government Constitutional Convention in 1986. He was the President of the Lelu PTA and Lelu Christian Endeavor. He was a member of the Kosrae State Constitutional Convention, serving as chairman of the Committee on Governmental Structures, and Operations. In the Fifth FSM Congress, Nena was a member of the Health, Education and Social Affairs (HESA), Judiciary and Governmental Operations (J&GO), and the External Affairs Committees. In the Sixth Congress, Nena served as chairman of HESA Committee, Resources and Development Committee (R&D) and External Affairs Committee.
His wife is the former Lerina Jack and they have ten children.
President Bailey Olter
The late President Bailey Olter was born on March 27, 1932 in Mwoakilloa, Pohnpei. One of the Founding fathers of this nation, he dedicated his life in service to the people of the Federated States of Micronesia. Mr. Olter served as a Micronesian advisor to the US delegation to the United Nations Trusteeship Council in 1965. He represented Pohnpei on the Advisory Board to the High Commissioner and the Council of Micronesia.
The late President Olter was the second Vice President of the Federated States of Micronesia. In 1991, he was elected third President of the Federated States of Micronesia, was re-elected for a second term in 1995 and played a very instrumental role in this nation's membership on the United Nations. President Olter has led very illustrious career and he leaves behind an indelible legacy of a founding father who contributed immeasurably in the charting of the present day Federated States of Micronesia.
Mr. Olter also served in various capacities such as the President of the Pohnpei Federation of Cooperative Association, Secretary-Treasurer of the Pohnpei Fishing Cooperative and instructor at the then Pacific Islands Central School.
The late former President is survived by his loving wife, the former first lady, Mrs. Amalia Nanpei Olter and his family, children and grandchildren.
President Leo A. Falcam
Leo A. Falcam was the Fifth President of the Federated States of Micronesia. Often referred to as the Veteran, President Falcam may be one of the last of the 'leadership' that established the footing for Micronesian's progress towards sovereignty and self-governance.
Born during the period of Japanese era in Micronesia, President Falcam was raised in an environment of restriction and discipline which may have contributed to his 'no-nonsense, decisive' form of leadership.
The President's educational background began during the Japanese administration and continued under the administration of the US Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands (TTPI), as a scholarship recipient to the University of Hawaii where he graduated in 1962 with a Bachelor Degree in Sociology.
After graduating from UH, President Falcam, taught briefly in Pohnpei before joining the US TTPI Government in 1962, at the Headquarters in Saipan, as a Political Affairs Officer for the TTPI High Commissioner.
In 1964, President Falcam was appointed Assistant District Administrator for Ponape District. The following year, he left for Princeton University in New Jersey, where he completed his gradute program at the Woodrow Wilson School in the field of Public Administration and International Affairs.
In 1966, President Falcam returned to the TTPI Administration as an Executive Officer under the Office of the High Commissioner. In his capacity as Executive Officer under the Office of the High Commissioner. In his capacity as Executive Officer, President Falcam became the first Micronesian to serve as acting High Commissioner for the TTPI.
In 1972, President Falcam became the first native District Administrator for Ponape District. He served during the Micronesia island's transition from TTPI's Administration to independence and self governance.
In 1975, President Falcam chaired the Pohnpei Delegation to the Micronesian Islands Constitutional Convention, which identified the plurality of the Micronesian islands as separate nations. He is among the framers of the navigational instrument of the Nation's political course, the FSM Constitution.
After serving as District Administrator for Ponape, President Falcam in 1976, was assigned to establish and head the Micronesia/Washington Office in DC.
Following the formation of the Federated States of Micronesia, President Falcam returned to the newly established Government and became on May 1979, the first elected Governor of the new State of Pohnpei.
In 1983, the newly established Pohnpei State held it's Constitutional Convention and elected President Falcam as Chairman of the Convention.
In 1984, President Falcam was appointed as the nation's first Post Master General, a position he served until his election to the Fifth FSM Congress in 1987, as Pohnpei States' Senator at large.
As a freshman in Congress, he had concurrent vice-chairmanship on the Committees of Judiciary and Governmental Operations; and Health, Education and Social Affairs and a member of External Affairs Committee.
He chaired the National Capital Development sub-committee during the Sixth FSM Congress and served on the following committees: Judiciary and Governmental Operations and Health, Education & Social Affairs in the Sixth FSM Congress.
President Falcam served the Eight and Ninth Congress, as vice-chairman of the Committee on the External Affairs and was a member of the committees on Resources and Development and Judiciary and Governmental Operations.
President Falcam's extensive public sector involvement include service as President of the FSM Bank; member of the Bank's Board of Directors; member of the Pohnpei Agriculture and Trade School Board of Trustees and the PATS PEACE Foundation.
On May 1997, ten years to the date of his election to Congress, President Falcam was elected the fourth Vice President of the Federated States of Micronesia.
Two years later, on May 11, 1999, Leo A. Falcam was seated as the Fifth President of the Federated States of Micronesia.
In January 2001, President Falcam was elected Chairman of the Standing Committee for the Pacific Islands Conference of Leaders. A Conference of Heads of Governments from 21 Pacific Islands Nations.
President Joseph J. Urusemal
President Emanuel (Manny) Mori
Petrus Tun
Hiroshi Ishmael