Posing for the check presentation, from left, school president Walter Kirimitsu and school principal Patricia Hamamoto, and from the Ching Foundation, Kenneth Okamoto, John Tsui, Raymond Tam, Peter Ng and R. Stevens Gilley. (Photo courtesy of Saint Louis School)
The Clarence T.C. Ching Foundation has given Saint Louis School $7.5 million, the school’s largest single gift in its 167-year history.
The grant, presented at a May 1 school assembly, was a matching donation triggered by another $7.5 million in donations collected by Saint Louis itself.
The Ching Foundation’s gift comes at the start of the school’s capital campaign “Crusade for Excellence — in Academics and Athletics.”
The campaign’s first phase is the demolition and replacement of the Brother Gerber Field House with the Clarence T. C. Ching Athletic Center. The new facility will have a state-of-the-art athletic arena and weight training facility, new locker rooms and multi-purpose rooms.
Additional phases of the campaign will bring classroom renovations and high-tech upgrades.
Clarence Ching, who came from a poor family, has credited his Saint Louis education for creating the foundation of his success in business.
In a news release announcing the grant, Raymond Tam, the Ching Foundation trustees’ vice chairman, said, “The skinny young man from Kauai who loved sports will now have an athletic center named after him on his alma mater’s campus. We know he will be looking down from heaven in delight.”
Saint Louis president Walter Kirimitsu said the new center would “be a great tribute to the legacy of Clarence T.C. Ching and will provide quite a sports and event facility for our school and community.”
