Celebrating Hilo High School’s Class of 1940

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As one of the only surviving officers of the Hilo High School Class of 1940 Endowed Scholarship, Helen Kim Young likes to brag that her graduating class is the only one to provide financial aid to incoming freshmen at the University of Hawai‘i at Hilo and Hawai‘i Community College.

“We were a very close group,” said the vibrant 93-year-old of her fellow alumni. “We used to get together all the time so we got close, and we even took trips to the mainland.”

While talks of food and “old-kine” memories often dominated the annual reunions, discussions turned more serious when the subject of their class’ legacy would come up. “We would always say we have to do something,” Young recalls. “Our classmate Ben [Benjamin Takao Inouye] suggested we start a scholarship.”

Since 1990, the Hilo High School Class of 1940 has provided scholarships for 51 students, including NASA intern Christina Cauley, who received the financial aid during her 2013-2014 academic year. An aspiring scientist, the Hawai‘i Island native is helping to develop and operate remote sensing instruments on the International Space Station (ISS) as part of Project Good Earth.

“I’ve always wanted to be a scientist,” said Cauley via telephone from Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. “I’ve been lucky to receive many scholarships to pursue my dream, but the Hilo High School Class of 1940 Scholarship has special meaning because it’s my alma mater.”

Unfortunately, attending college was not in the future for Inouye. World War II had already broken out when he graduated from Hilo High School. Soon after, he became an apprentice carpenter to financially help his widowed mother, Kikue Yamaguchi Inouye. Two years later, he married his high school sweetheart, Lily Yuriko Hongo. They stayed in Hilo and had four children.

“My dad passed away several years ago but he had always had a very close relationship with his classmates,” said Gordon Inouye, the eldest son and a 1961 Hilo High School alumnus. “Part of the reason my dad wanted to start the scholarship fund was because he himself never got the chance to get his own college degree.”

Gordon Inouye graduated from the United States Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point, New York in 1965 with a degree in Engineering.  Being the first in his family to earn a degree, this achievement motivated Lily Inouye to return to UH Hilo to pursue her own degree.

“Since he couldn’t go to college, dad always wanted to give others the chance he never had,” Inouye said. “He was a selfless man and this scholarship endowment is one of the ways he wanted to contribute to our small Hilo community.”

As the Class of 1940 slowly diminishes, its legacy scholarship will continue in perpetuity thanks to the efforts and foresight of the scholarship committee, which worked to establish a permanent endowment at the UH Foundation. Young, who was a member of the committee, credits her classmate Shizuko Akamine with being the “fireplug and backbone of the scholarship committee.”

Inouye and his first cousin and fellow 1961 graduate Tommy Goya praise the alumni for their commitment and dedication to the future generation, and their ongoing desire to help Hilo High School graduates pursue higher education.

“Some families have a hard time sending their kids to college and for some of these families, it’s the first time that someone in their family will have a chance to go,” Goya said. “This scholarship helps, and it will be perpetual.”