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DisasterMan
In 1986, the faculty and alumni formalized and implemented
a "Hall of Honor" to recognize McKinley's outstanding alumni
who brought honor to the school and community through
their achievements and contributions. The Hall now has
numerous photographs including one Governor (Governor
Samuel King), two US Senators (Senator Daniel Inounye and
Senator Hiram Fong), one Sheriff/Olympic swimmer ("Duke"
Kahanamoku). There were about 900 in our class of 1933.
Six of my classmates are included in the Hall of Honor. Ah
Quon Leong McElrath (Community Activist/Labor Leader);
Harry Chuck; Teichiro Horita (Superintendent of Education
for the Territory); our class president, Lionel Camara (Tax
Collector); Seido Ogawa, who won every public speaking/
oratory contest (minister); and our Jr. ROTC Cadet Colonel
who became Major General Robert Louis Stevenson (Adjutant
General, Hawaii National Guard).
I really enjoyed my high school days. I was promoted to
be an offi cer in our Junior ROTC unit. I played violin in the
orchestra. I was President of the McKinley Citizenship Club
which did useful things such as organizing "clean-up" days
where we would pick up trash all over the campus and pull
up weeds in the lawns and that sort of thing. There was a
corresponding Girls organization which twisted our arms to
attend dancing lessons. They paid professional instructors to
teach us ballroom dancing since there was a monthly student
dance on a Friday afternoon, plus the Senior Prom, of course.
I enjoyed being on our debating team with my friends. I made
model airplanes. I built a small amateur radio station next to
my study desk at home. My parents were very strict about my
doing all my homework before I could put on my earphones
and listen to amateur radio stations. I earned money for my
hobbies by my magazine delivery business to soldiers in the
barracks.
When my father transferred out of Hawaii, we went back
on a troop ship to San Francisco. I picked up mumps on the
trip so I was put in quarantine for two weeks after we arrived
in the Army's old Letterman General Hospital at the Presidio