Headmaster taught rewards of not giving up

By Treena Shapiro
Advertiser Staff Writer

As headmaster of a school known for giving students second chances, Dorothy Douthit has been known to give third and fourth chances as well.

Maria Burke, 17, a senior at Academy of the Pacific, received an award from Dorothy Douthit at a ceremony yesterday afternoon. Douthit is retiring after 29 years. Rebecca Breyer • The Honolulu Advertiser

For the first three years, Tomita said he didn't realize high school was about more than hanging out with friends. A combination of truancy and bad grades got him kicked out of Hawai'i Baptist Academy, AOP and Kalani High School.

Then it dawned on him that he ran the risk of never getting an education. "It just opened up my eyes," he said. "Getting kicked out (for the third time) got my life to change."

When Douthit agreed to take him back, Tomita managed to turn his life around, and now plans to attend Kapi'olani Community College next year to study culinary arts.

"She's my reason," he said. "She accepted me back after all my foolishness."

As one of the nation's longest-serving headmasters, Douthit's influence extends far beyond the cozy 'Alewa campus where she has helped students succeed in school against the odds.

She also has been a stabilizing influence in the Hawai'i Association of Independent Schools, and has helped many schools across the region become accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges. Students, teachers and fellow headmasters say she will leave a void when she retires at the end of June after 29 years.

"She's God's little angel," sophomore Fred Johnson said over modest protests by Douthit, 66. "She must be something, because nobody else would take us."

"Other schools think we're bad kids," Johnson said, but Douthit helped them prove those schools wrong.

Douthit was once an aspiring concert pianist, but her career took a different turn after she broke both hands in a 1958 car accident while studying in Europe.

In 1969, she was among six founders of Hale Mohala school, run for 60 students out of the Church of the Crossroads. The same year, she became director of the Model Cities program in Kalihi-Palama, where she continued until becoming Honolulu Junior Academy's top administrator in 1975. The school was renamed Academy of the Pacific in 1981.

Douthit said she never considered moving to a traditional private school. "My mom said ever since I was little I've always supported the underdog," she said, and she never wanted to work with kids for whom things came easily.

At AOP, Douthit could welcome students who had not thrived elsewhere, and help them to identify and overcome obstacles in their learning. She prides herself on knowing each of the 140 students on campus, which allows her to talk for three to four minutes about each. "They're achieving just way beyond what you would ever expect," she said.

She cites as an example one bright, cheerful teenager from a good family who came to AOP after years of poor school work and accusations of laziness drove her into a depression for which she had to be hospitalized. Educators at AOP discovered that the teen was reading at a fifth-grade level. They got her up to speed quickly and she was able to take advanced placement classes and received a full scholarship to college, where she is studying pre-med.

"With that kind of student, people feel they're lazy, but there is a reason why they aren't achieving very well," Douthit said. Once they identify the problem, "We can bring them up to way beyond what anyone could predict for them."

All the students end up going to college. "It's part of the expectations that we set when they come on," Douthit said.

Teachers speak fondly of their headmaster, and some said they look to her for inspiration.

Environmental science teacher Jody Hisaka recalls Douthit as a synchronized swimmer performing to "Hernando's Hideaway" at a faculty party. "I knew then, after my first year, that this would be a great place to work," she said.

After 18 years at AOP, Hisaka admires Douthit's skill in bringing together a diverse faculty and staff that work well together despite differences.

Punahou president James Scott said Douthit's longevity, wisdom and selflessness had made her a mentor for many of the newer school leaders. "She's our dean of headmasters," he said.

Douthit reached out to Scott when he came to Punahou 10 years ago, and they got to know each other better through the Hawai'i Association of Independent Schools and overlapping students. In some cases, students left Punahou, attended AOP and returned. In others, "there are cases where kids went to AOP, loved it and stayed," Scott said.

Headmasters at other private schools will feel the loss once Douthit steps down. At professional meetings, she had a way of turning conversations back to the students' best interests. "Whenever we got stuck, Dorothy would say, 'What's in it for the kids?'" Scott said.

He imagines next year, "We'll get stuck again and we'll ask ourselves, 'What would Dorothy have said?'"

In addition to her administrative duties, Douthit teaches psychology, winning praise from her students. "Mrs. D. is a really cool teacher," said junior Britney Kaaula, mentioning field trips, activities and her favorite topic, the outward manifestation of mental illness.

Cherise Evans, whose mother also attended AOP and whose grandmother was one of Douthit's colleagues, said she is sad to see Douthit leave. "Dr. D is a very warm person. She cares about all the kids. She's kind of like a second family. It's really cool."

Douthit said she had tried to create an atmosphere where the students can feel safe, especially since many of them were bullied, teased and beaten at other schools. At AOP, there are no fights, Douthit said, quoting a student: "You can't tease someone here, because if you tease someone it's like teasing yourself."

For the first few months after retirement, Douthit will spend time with her grandchildren and travel. Then she wants to return to teaching part-time at the university level. She also will continue her accreditation work.

She looks forward to swimming in the daytime rather than in the dark and will continue dancing hula with Halau I Ka Wekiu and singing with St. Andrew's Hawaiian Choir and the Prince Kuhio Hawaiian Civic Club Choral Group.

She also will maintain ties with AOP, continuing to raise money and work with alumni.

Douthit and members of the AOP board of trustees praise Mollie Sperry, the lower-school principal at Le Jardin Windward Academy, who will replace Douthit at AOP on July 1. Douthit, a member of the selection committee, said, "I'm very happy with the person they chose."

Trustee Barron Guss, CEO of Altres Inc. and a 1978 AOP graduate, called Douthit's retirement a tremendous loss, but "on the other hand, she's laid such a foundation, such a path, that it will be easy to follow. Mollie Sperry was handpicked because we know she can carry the baton."

Guss predicts that in 25 years Sperry will be commended as highly as Douthit.

Nevertheless, during the last week of school, students seemed a little apprehensive about the changes at the top. Junior Nick Vollert summed it up: "You don't know what it's going to be like without Dr. D."

Reach Treena Shapiro at tshapiro@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8014.