Ching Foundation gives Saint Louis School $5.2 million ‘Christmas gift’

What the $5.2 million matching gift fund will buy The three-story, 27,000 square foot Clarence T.C. Ching Learning & Technology Center will hold the following: n TECHNOLOGY CENTER: The state-of-the-art facility with a technology lab, industry standard data center, a television production studio, and a distance learning and video conference center. n HAWAIIAN STUDIES: Building upon the curriculum established by John Keola Lake, the Hawaiian Studies Program will offer a curriculum infused with language, music, hula, arts, history, and culture. n MUSIC & FINE ARTS: Because the arts broadens student understanding and appreciation of the world, this program will be central to the school’s mission of “educating the whole person.” n BUSINESS LEADERSHIP: This proposed program will teach students business and entrepreneurship to prepare them for real-world global challenges of the 21st century. The gift will also increase The Clarence T.C. Ching Scholarship, established in 1991, which provides four academic scholarships to students in grades six, seven, eight and nine during an academic year, and a full-tuition scholarship to a sophomore student for his final two years in high school.

It’s the biggest Christmas present Saint Louis School has ever received — $5.2 million dollars. And it comes from a former student, the late Clarence T.C. Ching, by way of the charitable foundation he created 40 years ago.

School president Walter S. Kirimitsu called the gift a “milestone.”

It is the largest single monetary donation to Saint Louis in its 162-year history. Ching was a 1932 graduate who became a well-known island developer, banker and philanthropist. He died in 1985.

“At a time when educational institutions are forced to deal with the dire economic conditions facing the country, our entire Saint Louis family is eternally grateful and overwhelmed with the award of this grant,” Kirimitsu said.

The $5.2 million gift will be used in part as a matching gift to create a three-story, 27,000 square foot facility on campus to be named the “The Clarence T.C. Ching Learning & Technology Center.”

Of the grant, $200,000 will be added to The Clarence T.C. Ching Scholarship fund, established in 1991 by Ching’s nephew Raymond Tam, and other family members. The fund awards four scholarships annually to students in the sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth grades. In addition, a full-tuition scholarship is awarded to a deserving sophomore for his junior and senior years.

Ching built the Kukui Gardens affordable housing project in 1970. The proceeds from its sale last December went to the Ching Foundation which has handed out a number of major grants this year, mostly to five Catholic schools on Oahu, and a $5 million gift to Catholic Charities Hawaii.