5/26/2020 #OwlStrong Newsletter, May 23, 2020 Subscribe Past Issues Translate View this email in your browser The Class of 2020 Virtual Graduation will air on YouTube and Facebook at 5 p.m. on Saturday, May 23. Share these links with family and friends, and join in the celebration! YouTube OR Facebook https://mailchi.mp/midpac.edu/friendships-that-endure?e=5bd58d6793 1/19 5/26/2020 #OwlStrong Newsletter, May 23, 2020 The Mid-Pacific Class of 2020 Virtual Graduation will also be broadcast on KHON2 on Subscribe Past Issues Translate Sunday, May 24 at 7 p.m. Everyone can tune in to this special celebration introduced by anchor and former Mid-Pacific parent Howard Dashefsky. Heidi Bow, Mid-Pacific Institute Alumni Director, shares why this is her favorite time of year and congratulates our newest alumni. VIEW Friendships That Endure On this day, May 23, 2020, 186 students in Mid-Pacific Institute’s Class of 2020 will graduate, marking the end of a year unlike any other, the culmination of their high school experience and beginning of new adventures. As we close the doors to our virtual classrooms and turn our proud eyes to this amazing class, we are reminded that academics are but one piece of a Mid-Pacific education. In addition to their diplomas, we hope they are also taking away with them lifelong memories and friendships that last. In this issue, we celebrate friendships that have endured the test of time with stories from alumni in each decade. Class of 1943 https://mailchi.mp/midpac.edu/friendships-that-endure?e=5bd58d6793 2/19 5/26/2020 #OwlStrong Newsletter, May 23, 2020 Subscribe Past Issues Translate Classmates Tetsuro Ushijima ’43 and Fred Wong ’43 have been friends and partners in music since their days at Mid-Pacific totalling almost eight decades of friendship. Up until stay-at-home orders went into effect, these friends were still performing together for residents of Kahala Nui. Mr. Ushijima, a self-taught steel guitarist, and Mr. Wong, who plays the ‘ukulele, have a repertoire of over 300 Hawaiian and ‘hapa’ songs. In an interview this past week, Mr. Ushijima said of his long-time friend, “He’s almost like a genius, he has three computers... I learned a lot from him because I play by feel and he played by brains.” He added with a chuckle, “And when we play music, you have to hit the right notes exactly otherwise he gives you stink eye.” Read more about this remarkable friendship in Mid-Pacific’s Legacy newsletter. The Class of 1943 bonded through their dorm experiences and were seniors on campus together during their own historic time - World War II. Even when he was living on the mainland, Colonel Charles Moriyama ’43 would come home to attend the annual 1943 reunions. Col. Moriyama was enrolled at Mid-Pacific after Leilehua High School was moved from Wheeler Airfield to temporary buildings throughout Wahiawa at the start of the war. Like his classmates, “Tets” and Fred, Col. Moriyama recalls a truck picking them up from school in Manoa to take them to work in the pineapple fields in Wahiawa, as the draft had taken many of the field workers. It was an exciting time, they recall. https://mailchi.mp/midpac.edu/friendships-that-endure?e=5bd58d6793 3/19 5/26/2020 #OwlStrong Newsletter, May 23, 2020 Subscribe Past Issues Translate When asked for some words of wisdom for the Class of 2020, Col. Moriyama offered, “Be yourself. Be good to others. That’s what I’ve tried to do everywhere I’ve gone and surprisingly it has worked out well.” Surely these are words for our whole community to treasure and live by. Class of 1951 Ray Sekiya ’51 and his classmates hold very fond memories of time with friends on campus. “Many of the classes of yesteryears like ours are close because we attended a school (MPI, of course) which provided us with a home away from home while giving us an education. We all lived, played, socialized and studied together in an environment that fostered good fellowship on a more personal basis. We have stayed close as friends by keeping in touch with each other primarily through class reunions (initially after the tenth anniversary year and then every five years thereafter) and when any classmate or former teacher visited the islands from the mainland. The initiator of the reunions was Ed Kawakami, DDS, who was a Student Council Treasurer as well as a member of the Boys Senate during our senior year.” https://mailchi.mp/midpac.edu/friendships-that-endure?e=5bd58d6793 4/19 5/26/2020 #OwlStrong Newsletter, May 23, 2020 Subscribe Past Issues Translate As for words of wisdom to our graduating Class of 2020, Ray says, “Just remember the words from the first stanza of our alma mater, especially, ‘So within our hearts safe cherished, Mid-Pacific stands.’ This school has affected your formative years and has laid out the foundation for you to meet the life challenges ahead.” Class of 1963 Karen (Kawano) Koles ’63 reminisces about meeting her lifelong friends on Mid-Pacific’s campus. “We first met on the day after Labor Day, 1959. We arrived as nervous, scared freshmen from Waipahu, Waialua, and Wailuku. Others came from towns like Kaneohe, Kailua, and Kaunakakai. We were thrown together in the dorms, meeting roommates with whom we had nothing in common except that our names began with the same letter...or close to it. At the time, Wilcox Hall, the boys’ dorm was where the elementary school is now; Atherton Hall was home to over a hundred girls. “Friendships grew as we attended classes in the Quad, competed in intramural sports, stood around during weekend dances in the old Mills Gym, and signed out from the dorms for shopping adventures at the brand new Ala Moana Shopping Center. We learned table manners and the finer points of etiquette during our three meals a day in Scudder Hall seated at assigned tables (eating our favorite turkey turnovers), sweated hours of hard labor and penalty work, and signed in hourly during the dreaded dorm confinement!” https://mailchi.mp/midpac.edu/friendships-that-endure?e=5bd58d6793 5/19 5/26/2020 #OwlStrong Newsletter, May 23, 2020 Subscribe Past Issues Translate Classmate Walter Ozawa ’63 writes, “We all began our Mid-Pacific lives together, learning new rules and practices, and most importantly, discovering each other. Mid-Pacific’s mandatory dormitory life brought us all together and probably the reason we are still so close today. Mid-Pacific Institute was our world. We were all 15 year-olds, new to brand new experiences and learning together. Through our four years together, we formed relationships and lifelong friendships. We each recognize how our MPI experience helped to nurture and shape us to who we are today.” Karen goes on to say, “We graduated in Bakken Auditorium wondering if we would ever see each other again. We separated for military service, jobs, and colleges both here and on the mainland. Some of us kept in touch by occasionally writing letters (social media didn’t exist, and email, texting, smartphones and FaceTime were years away) then getting together during summer breaks. Life was good. We became wrapped up in our careers, establishing families, and networking new relationships.” “It’s now 2020, and COVID-19 is dictating many changes in our lives. We had to postpone our ’63@75 birthday bash in Las Vegas, and we are temporarily prevented from regular gatherings. We miss exchanging signature gifts, along with belly-achingly funny confessions about life in the dorms, and sharing things like the best relief for joint pains, how to lie convincingly about golf scores, and fail-proof recipes. “We may now move a bit more slowly and have to turn up the hearing aids a notch, but it’s as if time has stood still. We look back on friendships that started sixty-one short years ago, celebrating relationships that have withstood the test of time. We came from vastly differing socio-economic backgrounds, different cultures and traditions, brought together by one undeniable bond: We were dormers! We support each other through times of joy and sorrow. When one of us gets hurt and bleeds, we still bleed green.” https://mailchi.mp/midpac.edu/friendships-that-endure?e=5bd58d6793 6/19 5/26/2020 #OwlStrong Newsletter, May 23, 2020 Subscribe ClassP aofst I1979ssues Translate Jon Fernandez ’79 recalls wonderful memories on campus with his cherished friends. “One of our most cherished holiday events was senior caroling. We not only sang carols for the administrators, staff and faculty who lived on campus, but also to the residents in our Manoa neighborhood. We loved that some of our teachers lived on campus!” “The reasons why our class is close knit are many. Some might call it kismet, while others call it fortunate. And regardless of which reasons can be attributed to our everlasting friendships, it all stems from our alma mater, Mid-Pacific Institute. Dormitory life definitely fostered everlasting friendships. We did everything together. We ate our meals, studied and enjoyed a plethora of school organized activities together, as siblings and families do. On weekends, those of us who chose not to go home would walk to Pizza Hut on Dole Street or take the bus to Ala Moana. We were also fortunate that our classmates were kind, diligent and always willing to participate in class projects or activities. During our sophomore year we were required to volunteer at a previously determined site. I volunteered for an after school program at Ala Wai Elementary.