Advertisement - Click to support our sponsors.
Former Big Island
schools chief Harry C.
Chuck dies at 84OBITUARIES
By Crystal Kua
Star-BulletinLongtime educator Harry C. Chuck was ahead of his time in stressing the importance of reading in obtaining a good education, his friend and colleague, Herbert Watanabe, says.
As chief of Big Island schools from 1965 to 1973, Chuck established clinics that helped struggling students learn to read.
"So the point of literacy wasn't anything new 'cause Harry had already looked at this," said Watanabe, now on the Board of Education.
Chuck, of Hilo, died April 26 in Honolulu. He was 84.
Born in Honolulu, Chuck graduated from McKinley High School, received his education degree from the University of Hawaii and earned a master's degree in education from Stanford University.
Chuck began teaching in Maunaloa, Molokai, in 1938 before traveling to the Big Island where he taught at Kohala High School.
His first principal's position was at Makapala School in Kohala, a tiny school he would have a hand in closing later in his career, Watanabe said.
Four months after the 1941 April Fools' tsunami devastated coastal communities along the Big Island, Chuck would be assigned to one such area -- Laupahoehoe.
"He helped to bring about construction of the new school," said Chuck's son, Lester, currently the Department of Education's facilities chief.
He served as principal of Laupahoehoe High and Elementary until 1951 when he became principal of Hilo High School.
In 1959, he was appointed Big Island deputy district superintendent. Watanabe said that Chuck was in charge of curriculum during this period. "He pushed hard for reading."
In 1965, Chuck assumed the island's top education spot as Hawaii District superintendent.
Watanabe began working for the district the year before and worked closely with Chuck throughout Chuck's tenure as district superintendent.
"He had a lot of trust in his administrators, a lot of confidence in his staff," Watanabe said. "Things moved along rapidly that way."
Chuck was in charge of the Big Island schools at a time of societal transformation. "The island was changing from agrarian to urban," Watanabe said.
The school communities were also affected, leading to the closure and consolidation of 14 schools with enrollments under 100 students.
But Chuck had vision, deciding against giving up the school properties. "He had to close them but we didn't give the land away," Watanabe.
As a result, some of those old schools are housing education programs that impact students from around the island, including the Keakealani Outdoor Education Center in Volcano. "Staff and kids stay two nights and three days and learn about the environment, the volcano."
Chuck retired in 1973.
Chuck's community activities included helping to develop Hilo's YMCA; he also was chairman of the March of Dimes and a member of the American Heart Association and the United Community Church.
Chuck was an avid golfer, Watanabe said. "He knew everybody and everybody knew him."
Chuck is survived by his sons, Lester, Leonard, Robert, David and Gerald; brother, Philip Chai; and eight grandchildren. Private services were held.
"I lost one of my best friends," Watanabe said.
