Punahou School is a private, college preparatory school located in Honolulu, Hawaii. Its student body consists of about 3,760[1] students from kindergarten through the twelfth grade. Its origins go back to 1841, when it was founded as a school for the children of missionaries serving throughout the Pacific region. The land on which Punahou was built, Ka Punahou, was taken in battle by King Kamehameha I in 1795 and given to chief Kameʻeiamoku, as a reward for his loyalty. The land stayed in the chief’s family, and his grand-daughter, Liliha, gave it to Reverend Hiram Bingham, one of the first Protestant missionaries in Hawaii, who built the school.
Punahou has a rich history and a wide variety of programs. Among its famous alumni are President Barack Obama, AOL founder Steve Case and teen golf phenom Michele Wie. Punahou is recognized nationally for its academic excellence. The class of 2013 had thirty National Merit Semifinalists and five National Merit Scholars [2] . Punahou also has an outstanding athletic program- it has won more state championships than any other high school in the nation and was ranked best in the country in 2006 and 2007 by Sports Illustrated. [3]
Harriette, Stanley, Jr., and Howard Good were enrolled in the junior school at Punahou shortly after their father, Stanley Good, moved to Honolulu to open the Asian office for the Dollar Steamship Company.
Stanley and Howard joined the swim team in high school and participated on several state champion teams. Howard won the state backstroke in 1927 and 1928. To the left is a picture of the 1926 team, with Howard sitting third from the left in the front row. The captain of the team, Larry “Buster” Crabbe, is fifth from the left in the second row. Crabbe went on to become a two-time Olympic swimmer-he won the 1932 Olympic gold medal in the 400-meter freestyle swimming event. He broke into acting and played the title role in the serials Tarzan, Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers. Sitting to Crabbe’s left is Louis Kahanamoku, whose older brother, “Duke” Kahanamoku, won fame with 5 Olympic swimming medals between 1912 and 1924 but is most known for being the long-celebrated father of modern surfing.
Howard’s and Stanley’s sister, Harriette (Good-Gist), also attended Punahou Academy. Harriette is pictured below in front of Cooke Hall, Punahou’s library, in 1919, ten years after Cooke Hall was completed. Harriette’s daughter and Forrest Craig’s mother, Francis Leilani attended Punahou, as did Kristen (Good) McGovern, daughter of Anthony Good.
Cooke Hall is one of the most enduring legacies in Punahou’s history, named after the famed Cooke family whose many contributions to Hawaii, beginning with missionary Amos Starr Cooke in 1837. Cooke died in 1871, but not before he founded Castle and Cooke, one of the “Big Five” corporations that dominated the territory of Hawaii’s economy and continues to this day.[1]
Cooke Hall has a rich and storied past. In December 1941, the entire campus was taken over by the United States Army Corps of Engineers (“USACE”) to be used as a command post. The library was hastily decommissioned, books relocated to the University of Hawaii, and Cooke Library became the District engineers’ office, an administrative office, temporary sleeping quarters, and officer’s mess. The first contingent of engineers arrived at the Punahou gates about 2am on December 8th (the day after Pearl Harbor). Unaware of the engineers’ emergency authority, the night watchman initially refused them access to the building. When negotiations for the building keys bogged down, the engineers broke a pane of glass in the Cooke Library door and let themselves in. It was not until 1945 that the engineers vacated and returned the building to Punahou.[i]
In 1987, Cooke Hall underwent a $1.5 million renovation to convert the original building to its present configuration as offices for faculty and administration. In 1995, the school installed a 4 foot in diameter clock on Cooke Hall’s pediment which can be seen pictured below. This iconic clock illuminates at dusk and can be seen from most anywhere on campus. Today, Cooke Hall stands as a living testament to the values upheld by Punahou School: “A commitment to the preservation of traditions and the flexibility to adapt and reshape a space to fit evolving needs of each generation of students”.[ii]
Our family has a similar philosophy regarding tradition and heritage. This was affirmed in 1981 when Howard Good, with the encouragement of his son, Tony, and Punahou president Rod McPhee, donated lane #3 on the track field in honor of his deceased son, Stuart. The lane appears below, along with the dedication plaque.
Photos courtesy of Punahou School Archives, Honolulu, Hawai’i
[4] Personal Interview with Anthony Good
[5] [6] By Zoe Dare-Attanasio ’06 http://www.punahou.edu/bulletin/detail/index.aspx?linkid=949&moduleid=69 Retrieved June 14, 2017