Napoleon Andrew Tuiteleleapaga - Personal Life

Personal Life

His private life was very colorful. Napoleon did not have the opportunity to attend high school for there were none during his time. Despite this handicap he taught himself on many subjects; some of those shorthand, music, writing, and some foreign languages. His Rosicrucian education and training had, according to him and some of the people who knew him well, helped him immensely in his ability to do things, but, in one respect, made it difficult for him to get along with many people, even his own brothers and relatives. Because of his firm belief that God is the first mover of everything, Napoleon attributed things he did to God and equally attributed and blamed everything on nature. He attributed one of his difficulties to his strict adherence to the "essence of time" and "fulfillment of promises." He felt that his fearlessness in telling the truth, though to his credit, left to misunderstandings and criticisms.

It is said that he scolded a director of the Department of the Interior because of his failure to accord honor and service deferential to the Samoan Chiefs, He chided one Governor for wearing a sports shirt to an official party, he dismissed a committee meeting after one minute past the appointed time as the members came in, and he even put his own brother-in-law in prison for killing a pig that didn't belong to him. Besides the American Samoa National anthem, he wrote many Samoan folk and love songs, one of the most popular was "Let Me Hear You Whisper."

One of his delights with his musical hobbies was the time he conducted the U.S. Marines Band, the Presidents Own, during one of his visits to Washington in 1973, when the Band played the Samoan anthem. His musical talents prompted one of his American admirers to say: ". . . and give him a horse he'll manage to play a foxtrot or funeral march out of it." This because Napoleon can play any brass, wind, or string instrument, although he never owned an instrument his whole life.

His desire to be of use to his people caused him to study law by correspondence, and receive an LL.B. Degree after almost five years. (1943–1948). He was a big fan of Perry Mason, and that is the style he followed. Following that, he took another correspondence course in detective work, and received a certificate at the completion in two years time. He nearly got into serious trouble when he practiced "Shadowing" on the Captain of the Yard, naval officers and men and their wives during the Naval Administration. These studies proved very useful and effective in his work as investigator, prosecutor, probation-juvenile-presentencing investigation officer. His "burning desire" to further his legal education led him to leave Samoa for the United States in 1958. In 1962, after almost four years of trying to enter law school, he was finally accepted by the Loyola University School of Law, Los Angeles, CA. For three solid years he studied at Loyola as a special student. Despite his academic handicap and the difficult law subjects, Napoleon studied hard to return to Samoa, Rev. Father Donovan, Regent wrote to the Governor: Napoleon Tuiteleleapaga has completed a 3-year course of study at Loyola. Because of his academic background he was not required or expected to compete with the regular students, but he has studied the theory and practice of the law and sat the stiff examinations together with the regular students, and will be of great value to the people."