A moment in history: CUH & Gov. Quinn

When William F. Quinn passed away last Monday of complications from pneumonia, many spoke of his importance to Hawaii.

In the ’50s he was a strong proponent of Hawaii becoming the 50th state and was appointed as Hawaii’s last territorial governor by President Dwight Eisenhower. He would later become the State of Hawaii’s first elected governor. What is not always mentioned in his laurels is that Governor Quinn also had a special connection to Chaminade.

Both Gov. Quinn and Father Robert Mackey were both young Catholic leaders during a transitional time for Hawaii and had a rapport. Gov. Quinn, at the age of 38, was elected chair of the 1957 territorial convention and served on the Hawaii Statehood Commission. Fr. Mackey was only 34 when he became the first president of Chaminade, then called Saint Louis Junior College, in 1955. 

The year 1959 was a milestone for both state and University. It saw Chaminade’s first graduating class and later, Hawaii’s statehood. Gov. Quinn connected the two events when he delivered the college’s first commencement address. In it he paid tribute to the Marianists for the sacrifices they made to bring Catholic higher education to Hawaii. “There is a great community need for this college,” he emphasized. He went on to point out the great need in American education for the kind of “intellectual training” found at Chaminade. 

Fr. Mackey, aware of the particular significance of Chaminade’s first graduation and Hawaii's pending statehood, shared Gov. Quinn’s high hopes for Hawaii’s future and Chaminade’s part in it. “As the years roll on, the alumni and alumnae will share their education with others,” he said in his commencement remarks. “The chain will become a strong net to enclose and unify the community of our new state.”

William F. Quinn was a man who has a special place in the history of Chaminade as well as Hawaii.

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