By Bob Krauss
Advertiser Columnist

Here's a brain teaser for the kama'aina. What high school class in Honolulu graduated after four years without attending its own school?

The answer: the wartime class of 1945 at St. Louis College.

A few months after the freshman class started school in 1941, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. The U.S. military turned the St. Louis campus into a hospital and students were sent home. But Miles Carey, the legendary principal of McKinley High School, offered to share classroom space with St. Louis.

McKinley students used the classrooms for half of the day, St. Louis students for the other half. The St. Louis class of '45 spent their entire high school careers at McKinley because the war wasn't over until 1945.

Elroy Chun, who attended the 60th reunion last week, said tuition at St. Louis was $10 a month at that time. Attending co-ed McKinley was something of a culture shock for St. Louis boys because they weren't used to going to school with girls. They got their prom dates and cheerleaders from Sacred Hearts Academy.

Several things make the class of '45 special. After class, St. Louis students picked and bagged pineapples for the war effort. And it's the only class that spent its entire elementary and high school career under one U.S. president, Franklin D. Roosevelt.

"Most of our class was born in 1927," said Chun. "We started school in 1933, the year President Roosevelt was elected. He was the only president to serve for four terms and he died on April 12, 1945, the year we graduated. The big event of my school career was his visit to Honolulu. My grade school class went to 'Iolani Palace to see him."

The class of '45 reunion program contains other gems of trivia. For example, what do Chew Hong Ching, former Honolulu Mayor Neal Blaisdell and Francis Funai have in common? Answer: They were all athletic coaches at St. Louis in 1945. Ching coached basketball; Blaisdell was football coach; and Funai coached baseball.

On the sober side, 40 percent of the class of '45 were unable to attend the reunion because they have died. It figures, because most of them were born the year Charles Lindbergh flew across the Atlantic Ocean for the first time. That same year, Babe Ruth socked 60 home runs and Gene Tunney won the long count over Jack Dempsey.

Among the notable graduates in the class is dentist Glen Fujihara, who'd never worn a necktie or a dress suit until he entered St. Louis. James Young became an architect, a profession that took him to Saudi Arabia, Kwajalein, Midway, Diego Garcia, Guam and Enewetak.

There's Jimmy Chang, who went into the military, worked as chief of teletype maintenance in Gen. Douglas MacArthur's headquarters and jumped to colonel in Korea.

That's all we have room for.