Rearview Mirror: Stories learned in 2018 include schools and 2 dogs

Each year at this time, I look back at my last 12 months of columns for some of the things I learned in the year.

Rearview Mirror is often a process of discovery for me, as well as my readers. In December I like to review the year and some of my favorite stories.

There are so many, I’ll do part one this week, focusing on stories associated with Hawaii schools, and finish with Part 2 next week.

Saint Louis School

I wrote about Saint Louis School in November, specifically about its alumni clubhouse. I learned that the current clubhouse on Isenberg Street was its second location. The first clubhouse was downtown in 1907 where Bishop Street is today, between Our Lady of Peace Cathedral and the Hawaiian Telcom building.

One surprise for me was learning that the St. Louis Alumni Association (SLAA) came to the rescue when the school’s enrollment was falling and its financial future was insecure.

The SLAA guaranteed a $7 million bank loan. The school has repaid, on schedule, $5 million so far, and enrollment is up.

Farrington

I drive by Farrington High School all the time and was surprised to find a map in the newspaper archives showing it had four possible locations.

The Department of Education chose the original Kamehameha boys school site. A second possibility was the old Kamehameha girls school location, now public housing makai of King Street.

The third proposed location was the previous site of the Insane Asylum, often called the “Pupule House,” on the corner of Lanakila Avenue and School Street, before it moved to Kaneohe.

The fourth possible location was a swampy area in Palama, between Dillingham Boulevard and King Street, before the Kapalama Canal drained it. There was a sports arena built there in 1930.

School planners wanted a minimum of 30 acres. Ten were needed for classrooms, offices and an auditorium; 10 for an athletic field and playground; the other 10 acres were for a school farm.

A tropical fruit orchard would train future farmers and supply fruit trees to the neighborhood. Over time, money earned would cover the cost of building the school.

Another thing I learned was that Farrington was initially referred to as Kalihi High School.

University of Hawaii

I went to the University of Hawaii in the 1970s and had no idea a dog had run for student body president.

“The most famous dog at UH while I was there (1951-55) was Dammit the Dalmatian,” retired neurosurgeon Max Urata told me. “That was because he had a column in the student newspaper, Ka Leo.”

“I first got acquainted with Dammit as a freshman,” Urata recounted. “‘Iolani grads gathered on the west side of the Hawaii Hall portico, and Dammit used to visit us to mooch. He got his name because people would say, ‘Dammit. Get away.’

“Dammit had the distinction of being, perhaps, the most avidly read and frequently quoted dog in history,” Tom Nickerson wrote in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin in 1971.

“This came about because the editors of Ka Leo gave him his own column, attributing to him, as a sort of trial balloon, views which they regarded as somewhat shaky.”

The Four-Legged Sage of Manoa, as some called him, penned about 10 columns. Dammit wanted to abolish the student council, Ka Leo, the yearbook, and lower tuition. He thought the cost of attending UH — about $100 a semester — was too high.

The high point of Dammit’s career might have been running for Associated Students of the University of Hawaii president. The paper didn’t say how many voted for the Dalmatian. I like to think he lost by a whisker.

‘Iolani School

Nohea Chang told me a story about legendary ‘Iolani coach Father Kenneth Bray and the famous racehorse Seabiscuit.

“My father-in-law, George Chang, was a bus driver in the 1940s,” Nohea Chang recalled. “George was assigned to take the ‘Iolani football team from its Bates Street location in Nuuanu to the old Honolulu Stadium in Moiliili for a big game.”

As the team left the bus, George said, the players were touching something Father Bray held: a horseshoe from Seabiscuit, the top racehorse of the 1930s.

Urata, an ‘Iolani graduate, provided some background. “Charles S. Howard, Seabiscuit’s owner, apparently vacationed in Hawaii. Father Bray knew him and asked for a horseshoe that Seabiscuit wore when he beat War Admiral at Pimlico in 1938.

“Before each football game the team would huddle around Father Bray. He would take the horseshoe out of his coat pocket, and every member of the team would touch it.”

“Because Seabiscuit was undersized with knobby knees, he was overlooked in most races,” Nohea Chang says. His owner had fortunately hired the right trainer, who was able to get Seabiscuit to start slow but end fast.

“In 1937 Seabiscuit won 11 out of 15 major races and became the top money winner in the 1940s. Father Bray used the horseshoe as motivation for his undersized football team.”

‘Iolani won the Interscholastic League of Honolulu championship in 1939 and 1940.

Baldwin High School

If UH could have a Dalmatian run for student body president, Baldwin High School’s dog, Queenie, deserves some mention, too.

Her owner, Laura Wong, said Queenie began following her son, Ransome, to school in 1952. Columnist Bob Krauss wrote about this in 1997.

Ransome graduated in 1956 and became a schoolteacher on Lanai. Queenie had gotten into the habit of going to Baldwin and continued doing so until at least 1962.

Queenie left home each morning and greeted the students as they arrived. Then she’d trot home in the afternoon. The students elected her “queen” of the class of 1962.

Central Middle School

I have been researching but have not yet published a story about Central Middle School.

I knew that it had been built for Princess Ruth Keelikolani as Keoua Hale. What I didn’t know is that it inherited her janitor!

Wah Yuen was born in 1864. He was 19 when Princess Ruth’s palace held a grand opening in 1883. He lived in a home on the premises.

Yuen, a 1927 Honolulu Advertiser article said, spent most of his life on the Queen Emma Street site. When the property was sold to the government to be used as a school, a clause was inserted in the contract that he would be retained there for the remainder of his life.

Princess Ruth died soon after her home was built, and her cousin Bernice Pauahi and her husband, Charles Reed Bishop, took up residence there.

The Fort Street School moved in, in 1895. It changed its name to Honolulu High School and is now named McKinley.

Central Grammar School, with Yuen as janitor, opened in 1906. For a short time, in 1916, it was called Keelikolani School, but changed back to Central Grammar because Keelikolani was too hard for some to pronounce.

Next week I’ll have Part 2 of Things I Learned in 2018. A week later I’ll pass out my Annual Rearview Mirror Awards. Let me know what your favorite stories were this year. Happy holidays!

Bob Sigall is the author of the five “The Companies We Keep” books, full of stories of Hawaii people, places and companies. Contact him atSigall@Yahoo.com.