Billy Kenoi, 52, died January 26, after a long battle with leukemia. Kenoi started his post-secondary education at Hawaiʻi Community College and the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo before transferring to the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. He later earned a law degree from UH Mānoa’s William S. Richardson School of Law. He went on to become a public defender in Hawaiʻi courts and moved into politics, becoming Hawaiʻi County mayor at age 39. Kenoi also worked as a lecturer at Hawaiʻi CC 2004–09 and again 2017–18. “On behalf of the entire UH Hilo community, I extend my deepest condolences to Billy Kenoi’s ʻohana, colleagues and friends,”