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What Stephen Ching remembers best about his high school math teacher Dorothy Ono is appropriately straightforward and indelible.
"She was very strict but also very fair," Ching recalls. "She was very precise and clear in how she taught the material. She definitely brought out the best in us."
Ching was part of Kaimuki High School’s stellar graduating class of 1968, a group that included future doctors, lawyers, engineers, even the head of the city Department of Parks and Recreation.
Ching had just transferred from Castle High School to Kaimuki when he first met Ono, from whom he would take four math courses. He was immediately struck by her sharp intellect and by the focus she brought to her duties as a teacher of young men and women.
"She wasn’t the rah-rah, school-spirit type," Ching says, chuckling, "but she was very dedicated and our class just loved her."
Ono was born in Ewa and raised primarily in Kalihi. After graduating from Roosevelt High School, she earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from the University of Hawaii at Manoa. She later took a sabbatical from her teaching responsibilities to earn a master’s degree in mathematics from the University of Illinois.
Ono’s son Tom said his mother was a talented musician who played piano and flute and served as organist for her church. She was also good with her hands, whether wielding power tools for home projects or pressing flowers for her homemade greeting cards.
Ching, who lives in San Jose, Calif., was one of several former students who kept in touch with Ono over the years. He and his wife, Robin, last met with her in October, shortly after she had been hospitalized following a bad fall.
Aware of the positive role Ono had played in his academic path, and recalling the financial hardships he endured to complete his collegiate education, Ching asked Ono for permission to establish a scholarship in her name, one that would provide annual funding for up to four years of undergraduate study to a Kaimuki High School graduate who excels in math or science.
Ono happily gave her blessing. She died six months later at age 85.
The first recipient of the Dorothy Ono Scholarship is Nina Bean, who graduated from Kaimuki last month and plans to study marine biology at UH.
Like Ono, Bean says she is driven by a quest for knowledge and the desire to use what she learns to better her world.
"I’ve had great teachers who have inspired me to find out what this world is about," Bean says. "My dream is to travel the world and raise awareness about conserving the environment and protecting species that are in danger."
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Reach Michael Tsai at mtsai@staradvertiser.com.
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