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May 28, 2016 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Kōkua Aku, Kōkua Mai

The following moʻolelo was told by Mary Kawena Pukui and published in the book titled, Tales of the Menehune – Help and be Helped.

This moʻolelo perpetuates the Hawaiian proverb, “kōkua aku, kōkua mai” (help and be helped.) In addition, it also brings attention to the importance of maintaining the resources of both land and sea. This moʻolelo is given below.

“Keoha, a canoe-maker of Hilo, had come to Puna. The trail was long, the day hot, and now Keoha stood looking longingly at a bunch of coconuts in a treetop.”

“‘Aloha, stranger! What are you looking at?’ A fisherman had stopped beside Keoha.”

“‘Those coconuts. Their cool milk would moisten my dry throat, and the meat of a tender young nut would taste very good.’”

“‘Come with me,’ the Puna fisherman invited. “’I have many coconuts and shall give you all you want. Come to my home.’”

“Keoha went gladly. The walk was long, but the Hilo man thought eagerly of the good food and drink that he could find. He hurried.”

“At last the fisherman stopped beside tall coco palms. ‘There are coconuts, stranger,’ he said smiling. ‘Help yourself.’”

“There they were indeed! High in the treetops! Years ago Keoha could have climbed one of those coco palms, but not now. ‘Thank you. I am no longer thirsty,’ he answered as he walked away.”

“A little later as he passed a group of houses the canoe-maker was called in. Boys climbed trees for coconuts, and Keoha and his hosts ate tender young nuts and drank cool milk. The stranger was refreshed and very grateful. These men became his friends.”

“The canoe-maker, however, did not forget the fisherman. ‘Someday I shall repay his kindness,’ he told himself.”

“Years later his chance came. The Puna man walked into the shed where Keoha was polishing a canoe. ‘My small fishing canoe was injured in a storm,’ he said. ‘I need another. Have you one?’”

“Keoha looked around. ‘Not here. These are all promised,’ he answered, speaking truly. ‘But there is one in the forest. Meet me early tomorrow, and I shall show you.’”

“Carrying food and water the two took the trail. The day grew hot, but they climbed on for the fisherman was eager to see his new canoe. “

“At last they reached the part of the forest where tall koa trees grew – the strong trees whose trunks can stand the beat of waves and scratch of pebbles.”

“Keoha looked from one to another of the great trees as he said, ‘Here are many canoes. Help yourself.’”

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Kokua Aku, Kokua Mai-koa trees – canoes-HWAP

May 27, 2016 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

‘Unknown Negro Mess Man’

Following the attack, the reports from all of Pearl Harbor’s ships and shore facilities of the events of December 7, 1941 were assembled and analyzed; then, the process of confirmation and then giving commendations to all personnel cited in the hundreds of reports began.

The Navy Board of Awards was established on February 12, 1942. A Navy spokesman recommended that the ‘unknown Negro mess man’ be considered for an award (the sole commendation to an African American.)

The unknown Negro mess man was named to the 1941 Honor Roll of Race Relations. On March 12, 1942, Dr Lawrence D Reddick announced, after corresponding with the Navy, that he found the name was ‘Doris Miller.’ (Aiken)

Let’s look back …

Doris Miller was born on October 12, 1919, the third of four sons to Connery and Henrietta Miller in Waco, Texas. He was named for the midwife present at his birth.

The family lived in a three room farmhouse near Speegleville, Texas where his father was a farmer. His life had begun in a time of controversy, turmoil and violence, although his immediate surroundings appeared to be peaceful and simple. Everyone in America struggled through the Great Depression. (Baltimore AfroAmerican)

Along with his siblings, Doris worked to support the family farm from an early age. In his youth, he became an excellent marksman as he hunted for small game with his brothers.

Doris also had a successful school career at AJ Moore High School. His tall stature gained the attention of the football coach at the school who recruited Doris as a fullback on the team.

However, as Doris became older, and as war loomed on the horizon, he longed to join the armed forces much to the chagrin of his parents. After several attempts to join different sectors of the military, Doris enlisted in the US Navy in Dallas, Texas, on September 16, 1939.

Unfortunately, at the time of his enlistment, discrimination limited the areas of service for African Americans in the military. After training, his assignment was as a mess attendant, third class. (Danner; Waco History)

“You have to understand that when Franklin Delano Roosevelt was president in 1932, he opened up the Navy again to blacks, but in one area only; they were called mess attendants, stewards, and cooks,” says Clark Simmons, who was a mess attendant on the USS Utah during the Pearl Harbor attack.

“The Navy was so structured that if you were black, this was what they had you do in the Navy – you only could be a servant.” (National Geographic)

After training in Norfolk, Virginia, and serving a stint on the ammunition ship Pyro, Miller was assigned to the battleship West Virginia in 1940. He soon won renown as the best heavyweight boxer onboard.

With the exception of a training stay at Secondary Battery Gunnery School, Miller would remain on the West Virginia until December 7, 1941, when the ship was in port at Pearl Harbor, Hawai‘i.

The morning of the Japanese attack, Miller was doing laundry rounds when the call to battle stations went out. He rushed to his station, an antiaircraft-battery magazine. Seeing the magazine damaged by torpedo fire, he went above decks to help the wounded to safety.

Word came that “the captain and the executive officer, the ‘XO,’ were on the bridge and they both were injured,” says Simmons. “So Dorie Miller went up and physically picked up the captain and brought him down to the first aid station. And then he went back and manned a .50-caliber machine gun, which he had not been trained on.” (National Geographic)

He committed his efforts to the defense of the West Virginia until superiors ordered all to abandon ship.

“It wasn’t hard,” said Miller shortly after the battle. “I just pulled the trigger and she worked fine. I had watched the others with these guns. I guess I fired her for about 15 minutes. I think I got one of those Jap planes. They were diving pretty close to us.” (National Geographic)

Here’s a clip of Cuba Gooding, Jr portraying Miller in ‘Pearl Harbor.’

Of the 1,541 men on West Virginia during the attack, 130 were killed and 52 wounded. Then, word circulated about the ‘unknown Negro mess man’ and his actions that day.

On March 14, 1942, The Pittsburgh Courier released a story that named the black mess man as ‘Dorie’ Miller. This is the earliest found use of ‘Dorie,’ an apparent typographical error. (Some sources have further misspelled the name to ‘Dore’ and ‘Dorrie.’

Various writers have attributed ‘Dorie’ to other suggestions such as a “nickname to shipmates and friends”… or “the Navy thought he should go by the more masculine-sounding Dorie.” (Aiken)

On May 27, 1942 in a ceremony at Pearl Harbor, Admiral Chester W Nimitz, Commander in Chief, Pacific Fleet, personally recognized Miller aboard the aircraft carrier Enterprise.

Miller became the first African American recipient of the Navy Cross, the highest decoration the navy can offer besides the Congressional Medal of Honor. (Danner; Waco History)

The Navy’s commendation noted, “For distinguished devotion to duty, extraordinary courage and disregard for his own personal safety during the attack on the Fleet in Pearl Harbor, Territory of Hawai‘i, by Japanese forces on December 7, 1941.”

“While at the side of his Captain on the bridge, Miller, despite enemy strafing and bombing and in the face of a serious fire, assisted in moving his Captain, who had been mortally wounded, to a place of greater safety, and later manned and operated a machine gun directed at enemy Japanese attacking aircraft until ordered to leave the bridge.” (Navy)

The Pittsburgh Courier called for Miller to be allowed to return home for a war bond tour like white heroes. In November 1942, Miller arrived at Maui, and was ordered on a war bond tour while still attached to the heavy cruiser Indianapolis.

In December 1942 and January 1943, he gave talks in Oakland, California, in his hometown of Waco, Texas, in Dallas and to the first graduating class of African-American sailors from Great Lakes Naval Training Station, Chicago.

Miller then reported to duty aboard the aircraft carrier Liscome Bay as Petty Officer, Ship’s Cook Third Class. After training in Hawai‘i for the Gilbert Islands operation, Liscome Bay participated in the Battle of Tarawa which began on November 20, 1943. (Philadelphia Tribune)

During the battle of the Gilbert Islands, on November 24, 1943, a single torpedo from a Japanese submarine struck the escort carrier near the stern. (Texas State Historical Assn)

The aircraft bomb magazine detonated a few moments later, sinking the warship within minutes. There were 272 survivors. The rest of the crew was listed as “presumed dead.”

On December 7, 1943 — exactly two years after Pearl Harbor —Miller’s parents were notified their son “was dead.” (Philadelphia Tribune)

In addition to conferring upon him the Navy Cross, the Navy honored Doris Miller by naming a dining hall, a barracks and a destroyer escort for him. The USS Miller (a Knox-class frigate) is the third naval ship to be named after a black navy man.

In Waco, a YMCA branch, a park and a cemetery bear his name. In Houston, Texas, and in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, elementary schools have been named for him, as has a Veterans of Foreign Wars chapter in Los Angeles.

An auditorium on the campus of Huston-Tillotson College in Austin is dedicated to his memory. In Chicago, the Doris Miller Foundation honors persons who make significant contributions to racial understanding. (Doris Miller Memorial) In Honolulu, there is a Doris Miller Loop, just mauka of the airport. (There are many more memorials to Doris Miller.)

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Admiral Chester Nimitz presenting the Navy Cross to Doris Miller

Doris_Miller

Doris-Dorie-Miller

Miller speaking during a visit to the Naval Training Station, Great Lakes, Illinois, on 7 January 1943-80-G-294808

Miller speaking with sailors and a civilian at Naval Station Great Lakes, January 7, 1943

Dorie Miller-cartoon

Above_and_beyond_poster-1943 U.S. Navy recruiting poster featuring Doris Miller

Dorie Miller Pin

May 26, 2016 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Robin’s Egg Blue Chamber

‘Iolani Palace (Io is the Hawaiian hawk, a bird that flies higher than all the rest, and ‘lani’ denotes heavenly, royal or exalted) was the official residence of both King Kalākaua and Queen Lili‘uokalani.

Construction was completed in 1882; in December of that year King Kalākaua and Queen Kapi‘olani took up residence in their new home. The second floor had their private suites.

After the overthrow of the monarchy, ‘Iolani Palace became the government headquarters (Executive Building) for the Provisional Government, Republic, and then the Territory of Hawai‘i. The private apartment of Kalākaua, and later Liliʻuokalani, was used as the Governor’s office.

In 1904, after the appointment of Mr. Carter as Territorial governor, the office of the Governor was redecorated.

“The Governor’s office is being renovated so as to restore some of the old royal splendor. There is to be a touch of robin’s egg blue on the walls and the little crowns on the ceiling are to have their red insertions painted brighter.”

“It is even proposed to bring up the gilded chairs of state from the old throne room and set them around. Unhappily the throne itself has gone to the museum but it may be brought back for special occasions. When finished, the executive chamber of Hawaii will make that of the United States look like thirty cents.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, July 8, 1904)

“Ernest Parker, the talented young Hawaiian artist, has taken the supervision of the work of renovating the Governor’s office in the Capitol.”

“Already the walls and ceiling have received the first coat of tinting in robin’s egg blue, with the stucco work of the ceiling relieved in gold. The crowns with crimson velvet insertions in the ceiling have also been retouched and look gorgeous.”

“Acting Governor Atkinson is earnestly studying the question of furniture for the renovated executive chamber. It is his idea to make that the show room of the Capitol and, as part of the scheme, to transfer the gilded chairs from the old throne room, now the hall of the House of Representatives, to the Governor’s official apartment.”

“(M)ostly every visitor to Honolulu of any consequence calls on the Governor, and in Mr. Atkinson’s opinion the executive chamber ought to be the most impressive, in artistic appearance and elegant comfort, of any apartment in the building.”

“One of the last things Governor Carter spoke about, on leaving the Capitol before sailing for the mainland, was the proposed renovation of his office quarters.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, July 8, 1904)

Originally, the walls were described as being untinted. The Governor’s office, apparently, became quite famous as the Robin’s Egg Blue Chamber, and remained with this décor into the administration of Governor Frear.

“The ‘robin’s egg blue’ room at the Capitol which is the private room of Governor Carter has been surveyed by many a critical art eye relative to the hanging of oil paintings upon the walls, and yesterday results were apparent.”

“Lying on the floor were the big life-size portraits in oils of King Kaiakaua and Queen Liliuokalanl. These are to be hung on the mauka wall, one on other side of the entrance leading from the secretary’s chamber.”

“The other portraits to adorn the walls will be that of King Kamehameha I, which will hang just over the Governor’s desk. Another will be the fine portrait of Kamehameha IV. A portrait of Princess Kaiulani will also have a place in the chamber. The room may be called ‘the blue room.’” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, July 27, 1904)

“Although Carter no longer holds down the lid in the Robin’s Egg Blue Chamber, he is still very much in evidence around the Executive offices. Indeed, he is there most of the time.”

“With his coat off and attired in a shirt which was probably bought during his reign to match the color of the walls of the famous Robin’s Egg Blue, he spends nearly all day at the long table in the Secretary’s office working on his final report to the President.” (Evening Bulletin, February 26, 1907)

In 1910 the following account appears in a newspaper under the heading – “Historical Tint of Executive Mansion Vanishes into the Dim Past.”

“The famous robin’s-egg-blue chamber has faded into the past. The chamber is still there – but the robin’s-egg-blue is gone…..”

“That famous tint disappeared yesterday under the vigorous efforts of a gang of workmen who invaded the royal chamber and washed the color from the wall.”

“It had to go for when the Governor, immediately upon his return from his eastern trip, moved into the quarters heretofore occupied by the secretary of the Territory, and took with him the immense portraits of kings and queens of a bygone regime, a hideous fact was made apparent.”

“It was literally hideous.”

“The removal of the great portraits disclosed the shocking fact that only a part of the room was robin’s egg blue. The rest, that part hidden behind the canvases, was green and just imagine the combination of grass green and robin’s egg blue!”

“It actually hurt the eyes of Secretary Mott-Smith when he entered the chamber to take up his official abode. Mott-Smith shrieked in agony and called for men, workmen to relieve the hateful contrast. “

“They arrived in squads – and the colors began to fade. Now the room is white, the virgin color of the untinted plaster. But it is not to remain white. Mott-Smith is considering what tint shall be applied. …” (Hawaiian Gazette, January 10, 1910)

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May 25, 2016 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Mānoa Arboretum

Hahai nō ka ua i ka ululāʻau
The Rain Follows the Forest

“Not enough rain and not enough water in the streams are great evils”.

“It appears to me to be unnecessary to again go deeply into the theory of the relation between forests and rainfall when all intelligent and observing people admit that the decrease or increase of rainfall goes pari passu (‘hand-in-hand’) with the decrease or increase of the forests.”

“The forest, which not only produces rain, but also retains the rainwater, holding it among its leaves and branches, its undergrowth, its myriads of roots and rootlets and its fallen debris, letting the rainwater trickle down slowly to the water streams and keeping them supplied for a long time”.

“(T)hat forest is not there. Rain pours down, the water rushes in torrents through the streams to the sea and soon after everything is dry again.” (Gjerdrum to HSPA, 1897)

“The ultimate success of forestry in Hawaiʻi depends on the continued cooperation of individuals and private corporations with the Territorial Government.” (Board of Agriculture and Forestry, December 31, 1907)

In the early-1900s, Mānoa Valley’s lower slopes were stripped of their native vegetation by excessive agricultural cultivation and the overgrazing of cattle.

Without healthy forest cover, rainwater flowed to the ocean rather than recharging the ground water table, Hawaiʻi’s primary source of drinking water. This loss was of special concern to the Hawaiian Sugar Planters’ Association (HSPA,) because sugar required great quantities of water.

In 1918, HSPA established Mānoa Arboretum in order to develop methods of watershed restoration, test tree species for reforestation and collect plants of economic value.

They put Dr Harold L Lyon, a young botanist from Minnesota, in charge of 124-acres at the back of Mānoa Valley. He was, at the same time, superintendent of the Territory’s Department of Botany and Forestation.

The site lies in the ʻili (land division) of Haukulu and ʻAihualama, in Mānoa. Several man-made features, including stone platforms, loʻi and the occurrence of many Polynesian-introduced plants note early use of the site.

One of Dr Lyon’s tasks at the arboretum was to identify trees suitable for rebuilding watersheds. Lyon observed that the adverse conditions of soil created from volcanic rock erosion appeared to affect the growth, survival and eventual death of many tree species.

He also noted that native plants did not thrive in areas that were previously trampled by cattle and other animals. The experiment station’s goal was to find trees that not only could survive in soil containing volcanic rock components, but also would comprise efficient water-conserving forests.

Mānoa Arboretum was a test site to evaluate trees that could be used for reforestation throughout the islands, and to test sugarcane seedlings. The test site became the basis of the Mānoa Arboretum.

Tree-planting was a coordinated effort involving Lyon, HSPA and Territorial Forestry under the direction of Ralph Sheldon Hosmer, the Territorial Forester. The early foresters planted many types of trees on an experimental basis, but concluded that native species were of limited utility and turned largely to introduced species for large-scale reforestation efforts. (Woodcock)

Lyon concluded that healthy forests should be preserved, that heavily damaged native forests could not recover on their own, and that damaged watersheds could be restored with introduced plants. Planting began in 1920, and was essentially completed by 1945.

“As an influential board member on the Agriculture and Forestry Commission, Harold Lyon succeeded in persuading the Territorial Commission to import seed of a vast number of alien tree species. … nearly 1,000 alien species were outplanted in Hawaiʻi forest reserves.” (Mueller-Dombois)

Various trees and plants were imported from diverse areas of the world including Madagascar, Australia, India, Brazil, the Malay states, China, the Philippines, southern Europe, the East Indies, the West Indies, New Zealand, Central America and South Africa. Trees that successfully survived the Mānoa Valley soil conditions and promoted water conservation were then widely planted throughout the arboretum

Eucalyptus species, silk oak, paperbark and ironwood were the most frequently planted trees due to their fast growth and their resistance to adverse environmental conditions. However, these very qualities, as well as their ability to seed profusely, would lead to some species such as tropical ash and albizia. (Iwashita)

The number of trees planted rose to many millions by the 1930s, when the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was available for planting. From 1935 to 1941, with the help of the CCC, an average of close to two-million trees were planted per year in the forest reserves.

Lyon envisioned the plantations as a buffer zone that would be established between the remaining native forests and the lower-elevation agricultural lands to protect the native forests and perform the functions (maintaining input of water to aquifers.)

This large-scale attempt to engineer nature was probably the largest environmental project ever carried out in the islands. Forestry introductions have been a significant contributor to Hawaiʻi’s alien-species crisis, with many of these tree species now problem invasive species. (Woodcock)

In his 1949 annual report to the HSPA entitled, ‘What is to be the fate of the arboretum?,’ Lyon declared the Mānoa Arboretum’s mission to test new plant introductions to be essentially complete; he believed that the HSPA should not remain the arboretum’s custodian.

On July 1, 1953, HSPA conveyed the Mānoa Arboretum to the Board of Regents of the University of Hawaiʻi. The regents were individually entrusted with the fiduciary duty of maintaining the arboretum. In 1962, the Board of Regents transferred the arboretum to the University of Hawaiʻi.

Dr. Lyon remained with the arboretum as its first director under the regents’ and university’s stewardship. After Dr. Lyon’s death in 1957, an advisory committee directed the arboretum until 1961, when Dr. George Gillette assumed the directorship on a part-time basis.

When Dr. Lyon died, the Board of Regents renamed the facility the Harold L. Lyon Arboretum (Lyon Arboretum) in honor of the man so closely associated with its growth and fruition.

In the early years, eight cottages were built on the arboretum site for staff use. The cottages were given alphabetical designations, beginning with cottage “A” at the foot of the hill leading into the arboretum site and ending with cottage “H” at the top of the hill. Lands surrounding the cottages were planted with sugar cane. Dr. Lyon also erected an orchid greenhouse between cottages “F” and “G,” which is still used today.

Cottage “H” was expanded over time and is now the main center of the Harold L. Lyon Arboretum, housing offices, a reception area, an educational office, and a book and gift shop.

Forestry, Forest Reserves, Watershed Partnerships, invasive species and related water and habitat concerns were very much a part of daily activities when I was at DLNR.

Today, I am honored and proud to serve as a director on the Hawaiʻi Forest Institute, an organization dedicated to promote the health and productivity of Hawaiʻi’s forests, through forest restoration, educational programs, information dissemination and support for scientific research.

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Manoa-Valley-Manoa Arboretum-UH

Manoa_Valley-(LyonArboretum)-1920s

Harold L Lyon_Plaque-(hawaiimagazine)

University of Hawaii campus, 1932.

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Harold L Lyon_sign-UH

Harold L Lyon_Arboretum-aerial-Group70

Harold L Lyon_Arboretum-mcbh

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Harold L Lyon_Arboretum-aerial-Group70

Manoa_Valley-Baldwin-(DAGS)-Reg1068-1882

May 24, 2016 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

St Mary’s – St Joseph’s

About the beginning of February, 1842, the Catholic mission was established at Hilo, when Father Heurtel baptized 136-persons, and engaged the new Catholics to erect three grass chapels there and at other points of the district. (Yzendoorn)

It was later decided to divide the island into four Catholic missionary districts, which were allotted as follows: Kona to Father Heurtel, Kohala to Father Lebret, Hāmākua and Hilo to Father Maudet, and Kau with Puna to Father Marechal.

With the arrival on March 26, 1846 of five priests, two catechists and three lay-brothers, more support was provided. Included in the new missionary party was Father Charles Pouvet – he was sent to support Hilo.

As early as 1864, Father Pouzot had 18-students at his English school in Hilo (he felt the need to provide education for the Catholic children, rather than them attending Harvey Hitchcock’s (a Protestant missionary son) school in town.)

Five years later, on April 1, 1869, a small parish school was established for the purpose of teaching English to the native Hawaiians. Father Pouzot started with 10-boarders, but wrote in January 1870, “I have only three now, for want of means to keep more.”

It grew with “much improved accommodations and new school rooms and dormitories.” Separate buildings housed the boys (in what was named Keola Maria) and the girls at St Joseph’s. (Alvarez)

The schools were separated and moved to different campuses in 1875, the boys to a site on Waianuenue Street and the girls on Kapiʻolani Street.

In 1885 the Marianist Brothers came to Hilo to run the boys’ school and renamed it St Mary’s School. Parish staff and lay persons taught the girls at St Joseph School. (Brothers of Mary also took charge of St Louis’s College at Honolulu and St Anthony’s School at Wailuku.)

Both St Mary’s Boys’ School (on the site of what is now the Hilo Terrace Apartments on Waianuenue) and the St Joseph Girls’ School (a block from the church on Kapiʻolani Street) had students through the eighth grade.

The Franciscan Sisters of Syracuse (Mother Marianne Cope’s congregation) arrived in 1900 to St Joseph’s School for Girls on Kapiʻolani Street.

“St Mary’s School, Hilo. This school … (is) in charge of the Brothers of Mary. (It is an) eight-grade school of very high standard. (For boys only.) Brother Albert, principal, and four other teachers, all Americans; 270 pupils.”

“St Joseph’s School, Hilo (for girls). Sister Susanna, principal, and four other Sisters, all Americans; 256 pupils. The wooden buildings are well constructed, the rooms large, well ventilated and lighted and can compete in attractiveness with any school room in the Islands. The grounds are sufficiently spacious and of pleasing aspect.” (Report of Superintendent, 1907)

The first seismograph station in Hilo was established during 1921, when a seismograph constructed by Dr Arnold Romberg in the shop of the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory was installed in the basement of one of the buildings of St Mary’s School on Waianuenue Street.

The new location was satisfactory until a new road, Laimana Street, was cut through only 15 feet from the vault. After that time “the traffic disturbance became increasingly troublesome.” (USGS)

Father Sebastian immediately launched Hilo’s second high school, ultimately the only Catholic high school on Big Island. Opening day was September 6, 1927, with 23 boys coming from St Mary’s, from Hilo Junior High and from as far away as Hakalau, Honomu and Laupāhoehoe.

In 1928, Father Sebastian then labored so that the girls at St Joseph’s would have their high school too. He created space for their classrooms by jacking up the school building and installing classrooms in the enlarged basement.

The first week of June 1929 was indeed a busy one for the parish hall. Wednesday, June 5, saw the first combined commencements of the eighth and tenth grades of St Joseph’s and St Mary’s School’s respectively.

The valedictory was given by Lawrence Capellas followed by an address by Bishop Stephen Alencastre, Hawai‘i’s only Hawaii-born Catholic bishop. (StJoeHilo)

In 1948, St Mary’s and St Joseph’s were consolidated into a co-educational institution which was built on the present St Joseph’s site at the intersection of Ululani and Hualālai streets. Some nine hundred and sixty-three students were enrolled for the first year.

In 1951, the Marianist Brothers were reassigned to teaching posts elsewhere. They were replaced in Hilo with a larger staff of Sisters as well as dedicated lay teachers.

The opening of the new school in 1951-52 was a memorable event for it marked the beginning of St Joseph as a complete coeducational school directly under the Pastor of St Joseph Parish.

The Franciscan Sisters withdrew from St Joseph School in June 2009 after a 109-year history. Joining the faculty are the Missionary Sisters of Mary Help of Christians. (Lots of information here is from St Joseph’s and Alavarez.)

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