Jan. 25, 2017

Contributed by Nadine Lagaso

Hoʻōla Lāhui – Revitalizing the Hawaiian People – is a Kamehameha Schools cultural principle that provides opportunities for employees, haumāna and ʻohana to learn about and cultivate Hawaiian identity, history and culture, and the Hawaiian Experience. The mo‘olelo below is one such opportunity.

January 25 marks the 195th anniversary of the birth of Charles Reed Bishop, beloved husband of Princess Bernice Pauahi, and co-founder of Kamehameha Schools.  The two married in 1850, and through their 34 years of marriage and up until his death in 1915, he steadfastly advanced their shared vision resulting in him being remembered as a “Builder of the State – Friend of Youth – Benefactor of Hawaii.”

The following is an adapted biography from the Charles Reed Bishop Trust. Visit charlesreedbishop.org to learn more about this benevolent man and the numerous legacies of aloha he has left for the Hawaiian people and the people of Hawaiʻi. 

Charles Reed Bishop was a prominent and well-respected citizen of the Kingom of Hawai‘i.  

Born January 25, 1822 in Glens Falls, New York, Bishop arrived in Hawai‘i in 1846 with his friend William Little Lee; Lee was a lawyer and also became a loyal citizen in the kingdom. Bishop easily found work, first at Ladd and Company, a mercantile and trading establishment, then at the U.S. Consulate in Honolulu. Bishop was appointed collector general of Customs in 1849.

His industrious nature and good counsel in many fields were highly valued by Hawaiʻi residents and foreigners alike. Bishop served on the Privy Council for five Hawaiian monarchs from 1859–1891, and was appointed to the House of Nobles 1859–1886 by King Kamehameha IV (Alexander Liholiho).  He helped establish the Royal Hawaiian Agricultural Society and the Honolulu Chamber of Congress. He served the monarchs in a variety of appointed positions such as: foreign minister; president of the Board of Education; and chairman of the Legislative Finance Committee. He was chosen by Ruth Keʻelikōlani to be the executor of her estate and devoted 65 of his 93 years to honoring the lifelong works and aspirations of his wife Pauahi.

Soon after their marriage, the Bishops became the guardians of the future Queen Liliʻuokalani. In “Hawaiʻi’s Story by Hawaiʻi’s Queen,” Liliʻuokalani writes of her aloha for both her kahu: 

He (Mr. Gilman) knew me when I was with Mrs. Bernice Pauahi Bishop, where I was ever under the kind care of her husband, Hon. Charles R. Bishop, a couple whose principles of exalted piety, whose love for all that is good, honorable, and pure, are too well known to need at this moment the least praise from me, and whose protection was ever and always surrounding my earlier life. Such were the lives of those with whom my own life has been passed…

Charles Reed Bishop founded Bishop and Company in 1858, the forerunner of First Hawaiian Bank. An astute banker and financial businessman, he was looked upon to integrate financially prudent systems of banking, agriculture, real estate and investments for the kingdom. Soon after leaving Hawaiʻi, his business partner, Samuel M. Damon, acquired all his shares and interest of Bishop’s bank.

Kamehameha Schools
Bishop is best known for his generous contributions to his wife's legacy, the Kamehameha Schools, and the founding of the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum.

Immediately after Pauahi's death in 1884, Bishop, as one of five trustees she appointed to manage her vast estate, set in motion the process that established the Kamehameha Schools in 1887. In December 1885, Bishop had been elected president of the Board of Trustees by the other trustees. Because Pauahi’s estate was basically land rich and cash poor, Bishop contributed his own funds for the construction of several of the schools’ initial buildings on the original Kaiwiʻula campus on Oʻahu: the Principal’s House (1887), the Preparatory Department (1888), Bishop Hall (1891), part of the Girls School (1894) and the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Memorial Chapel (1897) were all constructed with these contributions.  

Bishop gifted to Kamehameha Schools all the lands willed to him in life interest by his wife, as well as lands acquired by him on his own account. Among the properties turned over to his wife’s estate were several of historic importance. These included the home sites of the Bishops (Haleakalā) and Princess Ruth (Keōua Hale). Bishop thus surrendered the rentals on all the parcels, consisting of 29,069 acres of Pauahi’s lands and 64,619 acres of his own lands. The transfers of lands returned were recorded in seven deeds, beginning on February 1, 1890. There would be no Kamehameha Schools today if not for Bishop’s own financial support and the enormous aloha he held for his wife, her family, and her people.   

Bishop returned to Honolulu from San Francisco due to the political upheaval and instability in Hawaiʻi in late 1892 and early 1893. His feelings towards the political events of the time and the future of Kamehameha Schools were recorded in the minutes of the Kamehameha Schools and Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum’s trustee meeting on May 6, 1893:

The President (C.R.B.) said there was one matter upon which he would like to express his views, whatever was the outcome of the present state of political affairs he hoped the Hawaiian flag would always be the flag of the Kamehameha Schools.  It was always to be remembered that these were the Kamehameha Schools; the Hawaiian flag was the flag of the Kamehamehas…

In a letter written on September 25, 1894 by Bishop to Theodore Richards, (a principal of Kamehameha Schools from 1893–1898) a little more than a year from the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom, Bishop makes clear his course and writes:

Whatever form the Government may take, our duty toward the boys and girls is the same.  They will need Kamehameha Schools, and the schools will be valuable to them and to the community. We need to cultivate our patience and forbearance in all teaching, and more especially in working with and for Hawaiians.  

Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum
Bishop founded the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum in 1889 as an enduring memorial to his wife. Pauahi had inherited many irreplaceable heirlooms from her parents and her cousin Ruth Keʻelikōlani, including feather lei and capes, kāhili, niho palaoa, kapa, lau hala mats, stone and bone implements and calabashes. Queen Emma also willed her priceless antiquities to Bishop, who turned her collection over to the museum.

Bishop himself added many more collections from all around the world. He contributed a splendid collection of shells, 1500 specimens for a herbarium, and a stamp collection called Hawaiian Postage and Revenue Stamps. He made special effort to look for feather work to acquire and purchased items like the Lady Franklincape. Today, the Bishop Museum has the largest and finest collection of Hawaiian feather work in the world. 

Bishop also began the museum’s first recording archive. He wished that the mele and stories be captured before becoming lost in antiquity. In a letter addressed to Bishop Museum Trustee C. M. Hyde dated June 14, 1898, Bishop wrote:

A number of years ago I attended a feast given by Liliʻuokalani, then Princess, at which two old natives, male and female, recited with excellent effect some old meles, one of which was said to have belonged to A. Pākī [Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop’s father]. It occurred to me that those chants and others could and should be preserved by aid of phonograph. It seems to me worthwhile for the Museum to own a good phonograph and to secure a considerable number of native meles (ancient and modern) songs, speeches, etc. for preservation. What do you say to it?    

Bishop had always intended that the museum would remain a permanent monument to the connection between Kamehameha Schools and its founder and that it would benefit students in the generations to come.

The Whole Story
Read Bishop’s entire story – including his invaluable contributions to health care, education and the Kamehameha Dynasty – HERE.

Strategic Plan 2020
SP2020 is a five-year strategic plan that will guide Kamehameha Schools from 2015 to 2020. The plan marks a starting point toward KS’ Vision 2040, which envisions success for all Native Hawaiian learners.

This story addresses Goal 3 of SP2020 which calls for KS to cultivate a Native Hawaiian identity within its learners. It also supports Action 5 of Kamehameha’s Ten Actions for fiscal year 2017, calling for KS to integrate cultural principles system-wide.