Andre's Retirement Party

First Row: Morris Lai, Eric Yamamoto, Warren Ho, Tom Wong,  Ken Lee, Andre Dulce, Russell Saito, Francis Wong, Howard Lee , Jim Miyashiro
Second Row: Mike Chun, KEN KANESHIRO,  LES HATA, Glenn Lee, Rodney Chun, Wes Tanaka ,Dick Tsuda, Leroy Lee,  Norman Tyau, Tom Campbell, Steve Takaki, Milt Oshiro, RODNEY INEFUKU, Ken Nakasone , Bob Mumper

attended but not  pictured: Clifford Uejio, Gary Shigemura, WENDELL WONG

NAME IN CAPS ARE  OF "LONG TIME NO  SEE " CLASSMATES OR CALABASH CLASSMATES

Great time held by all at Andre's retirement party held at Gordon Biersch Brew Pub at Aloha Tower Market Place on Sunday Dec. 9, 2012. Great pupus (ahi poke, barbecued wings, pizza, etc) and great beer.

I solicited information and  comments from classmates and am reporting them as they appear in my notes......hope to use this info to consolidate  for '61 Classnotes  for the 2013  Spring Issue of The Iolani School Bulletin.

Ken Kaneshiro     "Good to see you all!!"

Leroy Lee    "Glad we are all still looking good in our old age!"

Jim Miyashiro   "Enjoy every day"

Howard Lee  "Enjoying retirement"

Wes Tanaka " Great to see everyone especially the few that I have not seen since graduation"

Frannie Wong   "Good to see guys I haven't seen since graduation."

Ken Nakasone    "This class is getting younger everyday"

Russ Saito    "Andre and I went to Palolo Elementary together.....same kindergarten class....he looks the same .....still wearing shorts....just like in our kindergarten class picture"

Tom Campbell   "Andre...good luck....stay active and take care your body! Been a long time since Funakoshi Sensei!!! You were always better than me!!!"

Milt Oshiro    "Went to Disneyland and Legoland in early November  with wife  Maddie, Marcie (daughter), Ryan (son-in-law) and grandson Ryan who is 6 1/2 and also  a first grader at Momilani.  We really enjoyed ourselves"

Cliff Uejio   "Went to China and toured with my wife Stephani. We climbed the Great Wall in Beijing and also visited Xian and Shanghai"

Dick Tsuda "Still working at UH"

Norman Tyau "semi retired....working Tues, Wed and Thur and living  in da country. Hoping to do some traveling"

Steve Takaki   "quasi retired teaching 2 sections of ICS 101 at KCC....hoping to travel as much as we can and as long as we're still able to"

 Mo Lai "Will retire Dec 28, 2012"

Rodney Inefuku-  "Retired electrical engineer...worked at Pearl Harbor until 2008. Lives in Hawaii Kai....has two kids.....a girl age 30 and a son age 28.

Eric Yamamoto- "Semi -retired from life insurance, pension and spiritual stuff. Has a daughter , age 43, and a granddaughter, age 2)

Glenn Lee-   "Sort of retired  and spending time between Honolulu and Lacey Washington. .....I visit Vegas sometimes and am happily married to Yong Lee.

Mahalo to Andre for providing us  with ball caps with our signature Iolani Class of '61 logo. Several of our classmates are wearing them in the group picture.

Just a note: I attended the Iolani School's 150th Anniversary Celebration Speaker Series featuring The Reverent David P. Coon at the Pacific Club on 11/30/12. Also in attendance from our class was Warren Ho and Russ Saito.

It was great to see Mr. Coon and he was sharp in mind and spirit. He still knew my name. It was a great talk,concise and to the point. One of the major points that he made was the importance of hiring and keeping quality teachers in order to run a quality  educational institution.

At the end of the talk, he entertained questions and comments  from the audience. Ron Lim '60 who sat at the same table as myself  shared that he got an F in geometry  from Mr. Coon from his failure to memorize geometry theorems. Ron said that he went on to major in mathematics in college and returned to Iolani  to share that  fact with Mr. Coon. Mr. Coon hired Ron to teach a summer math session but Ron  noted that at the end of the session, he  decided that   teaching would not be in his  future because he only got paid $200.

Unfortunately, that was the status of both public and private school salaries in the 1960's. I remember talking to Mr. Coon after I completed four years in the military about a possible teaching position at Iolani. He said that Iolani was paying beginning teachers $7000 a year. The Hawaii Department of Education would pay me  $9000 a year giving me credit for my military service. As a result,  I made my decision to teach in the public school system.

In closing, definitely a big MAHALO to  Andre for putting this party on for us and especially for his efforts in bringing guys back who we haven't seen for over 50 years.