The regional director of the National Labor Relations Board who issued a controversial ruling last week giving a group of Northwestern University football players the right to unionize says he would not have been in the position to make that decision if it wasn’t for his time living in Hawaii.

The decision by Peter Sung Ohr could have implications for similar private universities around the country.

In the case, the College Athletes Players Association, which petitioned the NLRB on behalf of the players, argued that college football is a commercial enterprise that relies on players’ labor to generate billions in profits, making the relationship of schools to players one of employers to employees.

Ohr, 46, who lived in Hawaii for 12 years, agreed to speak with the Star-Advertiser as long as it wasn’t about the ruling, which is still facing an appeal.

Born in Seoul, Ohr came to the United States at age 3 and graduated with a law degree in 1994 from Pepperdine University School of Law, where he met his wife, Julie, an Aiea native. He came to Hawaii because his wife wanted to return home after graduating.

His first job after law school was as an investigator for the Hawaiian Claims Office, a now defunct program that helped Native Hawaiians settle claims against the Hawaiian Home Lands program. Working closely with Native Hawaiians, Ohr appreciated how they viewed the islands and how they treated one another, he said.

He recalled how people who had been mistreated for generations still remained respectful.

"That kind of shapes how you see the rest of your experience in Hawaii," he said. "They were so incredibly generous with their thoughts and how patient they were, just a calmness. It’s almost a religion in a way you’re supposed to act."

Melody MacKenzie, who was the executive director of the Hawaiian Claims Office, recalled Ohr was a hard worker, toiling long hours to study documents, do community outreach, and interview claimants.

"He was very passionate about his work," she said. "A really good guy."

MacKenzie, who is also an associate professor at the University of Hawaii’s William S. Richardson School of Law, said she was shocked when she heard on National Public Radio that Ohr was the person who had made the Northwestern decision.

"I thought it was great that he had taken the position that he had," she said. "It’s another example of standing up for people who are in some sense voiceless."

Ohr became a field attorney for the NLRB in Hawaii in 1997, working on high-profile cases such as sweatshops in Saipan and American Samoa.

Tom Cestare, officer in charge at the NLRB office in Hawaii and Ohr’s friend, said he spoke with Ohr after the ruling.

Ohr told him it wasn’t a hard decision to make and was "the right thing to do," he said.

"Sometimes doing the right thing takes a lot of bravery," Cestare said. "He’s a good man."

Ohr left in 2005 to work for the NLRB in Washington, D.C., and became regional director of the NLRB’s Chicago office in 2011.

But after 12 years in Hawaii, where he started his practice, got married and had two of his three children, he says he still feels the imprint of the islands in his work and through his wife. In Chicago, he tries to develop the close relationships that he saw were successful in the islands.

"Ultimately, you want relationships to be good so things get done," he said.

Most importantly, Hawaii helped Ohr overcame a reservation that as an Asian-American "perhaps I was not fully an American," he said.

"If I did not start my career in Hawaii and have that kind of assurance and footing as a person, I highly doubt I’d be as fortunate as I am right now in what position I hold," he said. "If I stayed in Los Angeles, I would have gotten lost and still never had that assurance."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.