A Punahou Shirt…

WED., AUG. 25, 1999, 9:57 AM
OFFICE, PULLIAM

Today you are wearing, for the first time, a shirt, given to you by son Matthew, that is a low-key “symbol” of Punahou School, this experience so important in your life… even after these many years. You have been there, of course, since you left as a Dean in 1957, but these have been visits, with your life centered here. Yet the shirt is a subtle reminder of a “start” there. Though I had not come to you in any obvious way, yet, I was quite aware of you, and was just waiting for “the right time.”

The Punahou shirt reminds you that this School was a factor in… even responsible for… your meeting Lenore. You became convinced that she was the life partner for you several years before she had a comparable conviction concerning you… and a permanent relationship. That was not something like 51 years ago, at just about this time of year. Your courtship began on that campus, but then spread to ( 10:11 / 10:13 ) the cottage on, or abutting, Waikiki Beach. When you and Lenore were finally married you “came home” to an apartment atop Dole Hall on that campus. And then, in a few months, you had left those Islands (perhaps for good… as she had done the year before!).

I was certainly aware of you then, guiding you to the Menlo Park Presbyterian Church… after guiding you away from a degree and subsequent career in business and onto the right life work for you… a health educator at the University level. You were developing quite well toward what I wanted for you, but you needed some further contact with and experience at Punahou. So you were offered a “new” position by John Fox, and, as you should have, you accepted it… now with two sons… small, then.

Two good years followed, with great experiences and a fine life on Pipers Pali. John Patrick was born there, and you didn’t know, until much later, that he would be the son closest to you, geographically and spiritually. You were offered the position at Stanford… a surprise… and you accepted… still somewhat of a surprise. Your professional responsibilities were increasing, and also your understanding of where Presbyterians were, in the spectrum of Christianity. You called your study, in the new home on Casanueva, your Sanctuary, and you began, with some unidentified guidance from Me, some first-waking-hour-of-the-day writing, but with no sense of a “calling.”

I then had a “hand in” the decisions at Stanford that brought about the decision that you would not be tenured there. You interviewed here, and We both remember that morning when you prayed fervently for My judgment as to whether this, SIU, would be the best place of you. Did I “lean on” Don Boydston, or did I already know that you would be offered the job here – the best and most appropriate university for you to “grace” for the last 2/3 or your career?

So even though it has been made clear to you that this is your “real home,” the Punahou shirt, like unto that old favorite of yours, the more direct picturization of Punahou, is a reminder that much of the clearly evident goodness of your life was “rooted” at Punahou.

Your parents left their “home” in Long Beach for some final years in Hawaii, close to Joanne and Howard, some of which were enjoyable and some too characterized by “deterioration.” Now the remains of both of them are in Peter’s Park, in a place where memories of their lives are more likely to be retained.

Yes, o son, yours has been a fine life, with the influence of Punahou being proportionately stronger than the actual years there… and I’m partly responsible for this… along with the presence of your sister’s home there, an everpresent opportunity for you to return… and remember.