Charles Reed Bishop

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An American from Glens Falls, New York, Charles Reed Bishop became a citizen of the Kingdom of Hawai'i and a businessman in 1846. Nine years older, he courted and married Ke Ali‘i Bernice Pauahi on June 4, 1850. When Pauahi died on October 16, 1884, her will established the Kamehameha Schools. Her lands endowed the Schools.

Mr. Bishop founded Hawai'i's first bank, Bishop & Company. Mr. Bishop built most of the early buildings of Kamehameha School for Boys, paid the teachers and supported programs with his own private funds. He instructed the first Trustees not to sell Pauahi's lands. He founded the Preparatory Department at the request of the Trustees for orphaned boys under the age of 12.

He resigned as president of the board of trustees and went to San Francisco, California in 1894. He and the principals and trustees corresponded frequently. He interviewed prospective teachers. Mr. Bishop guided the affairs of the Schools until his death 31 years later.
The History of the Kamehameha Schools by L. C. Hudson, p. 120, 121.

The first Schools newspaper, Handicraft, printed Mr. Bishop's Founder's Day Speech. "The Purpose of the School." In it he said,"...We look to those who may be trained in the Kamehameha Schools to honor the memory of the founder and the name of the schools by their good conduct, not only while in school, but in their mature lives as well..." Handicraft, January 1889

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