Family, Colleagues Remember Matsui

Hundreds of mourners, including Democratic leaders of Congress and representatives from at least eight states, bid farewell Saturday to Rep. Robert T. Matsui, recalling the congressman as a noble man who continued to make the world a better place until the end of his life.

In moving tributes to the Democrat who represented Sacramento for 26 years, friends and government officials described him as a man of “humble immigrant roots” who rose to the House of Representatives. Matsui, 63, died Jan. 1 in Washington of pneumonia brought on by a rare form of bone marrow disease. He was buried in Sacramento.

In Congress, he championed civil rights and the needs of the elderly while winning funds for flood control and seed money for Sacramento’s light-rail system.

“We will miss his leadership. We will miss his guidance. We will miss his advocacy. And we will miss his friendship,” Sacramento Mayor Heather Fargo said during a public memorial service at Sacramento Memorial Auditorium.

In a smaller, invitation-only service at Westminster Presbyterian Church near the Capitol, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) said, “For all of us who served with Bob Matsui, it was an honor to call him ‘colleague.’ ”

Pelosi, along with U.S. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), called Matsui “the moral compass to the Congress of the United States.”

The ecumenical service featured Buddhist, Christian and Jewish religious leaders and attracted many of California’s House members, as well as congressional representatives from Michigan, New York, Ohio, Texas, North Dakota and Massachusetts.

Many served under Matsui on a Social Security subcommittee of the House Ways and Means Committee.

Matsui, considered a trailblazer for Asian American politicians, is survived by his wife, Doris, and son, Brian.

A special election to fill his seat is to be held in the spring.