Posted on: Friday, March 4, 2005

EDITORIAL
Rod McPhee leaves vast educational legacy

It goes without saying that private Punahou School has an impact on Hawai'i's society more profound and lasting than its size and assets might suggest.

The school has produced generations of Island leaders in business, government, the arts and other fields. It has blazed educational trails that other schools, both public and private, have been able to follow.

And it has taken more than a substantial endowment and admirable physical facilities to make this happen. Punahou has prospered, in good measure, through its enlightened and dynamic leadership.

Perhaps no one better typifies the kind of leadership Punahou sought to develop through education and example than Roderick McPhee, who died Friday at the age of 76. During his 26 years at Punahou McPhee modernized the campus, worked tirelessly to raise funds to support tuition and student activities and turned his school into a virtual laboratory of educational excellence.

He nurtured a culture of experimentation and adventure in the classroom, opening new doors of learning for students and faculty alike. And he was tireless in spreading the lessons he learned on the Punahou campus into the broader educational community.

McPhee was not a cloistered headmaster, content to deal with the concerns of his own campus. He was an outspoken voice for quality education in all forms and in all places.

He was not shy about criticizing Hawai'i's public school system, not out of a feeling of superiority, but rather out of a passionate belief that every child in every classroom deserved the best possible education.

There is a limited pantheon of individuals who have made an indelible mark on the quality of education in Hawai'i, both public and private.

One such was the legendary Miles Cary, principal of McKinley High School between 1924 and 1948. Cary, a committed believer in "progressive" education, established ideals of democracy and civic obligation in generations of youngsters and future public leaders.

Roderick F. McPhee joins that short list of those whose contributions to education will long be remembered and valued.