Posted on: Saturday, June 9, 2001

Editorial

Steve Case's show of confidence welcome

That was an important message local boy and media tycoon Steve Case brought back to Punahou, his alma mater, this week.

Case is co-founder of America On Line, now a $220 billion corporation that includes CNN, HBO, Time-Warner and other properties. He has made a fortune in the dizzying world of high tech and the Internet.

But he has also demonstrated by his actions that he believes in his message that corporate leaders and companies to "do right" as well as doing well for themselves and their stockholders.

Punahou, of course, has benefited from this philosophy. Case, along with others in his family, will donate millions to Punahou for a new middle school that will blend high-technology and teaching innovations in a way that will create new opportunities and new styles of learning. The lessons learned through this experiment should, and most likely will, be shared with educators throughout the state.

But Case is equally excited about the school's new Center for Public Service, which will expand opportunities for the school's students to give back to a community that has given them so much.

Beyond giving back to his former school, Case has given back to the entire state through his purchase of Kaua'i's Grove Farms and Maui's Maui Land & Pineapple. As Case freely admitted, these purchases were motivated less by the prospect of making a great business deal than they were an effort to preserve intact two important Island land-holding institutions as well as make a public show of confidence in Hawai'i's long-term economic viability.