[ OUR OPINION ]
FOR many years, no woman in Hawaii has been more revered than Gladys Kamakakuokalani Ainoa Brandt, a dedicated and inspirational educator who carried the torch for Hawaiian values for much of the past century. Her death at the age of 96 is mourned throughout the state. ‘Auntie Gladys’ inspired
excellence in Hawaiians
THE ISSUE Respected and beloved Hawaiian leader, Gladys Brandt, died Wednesday.
From a public school teacher on Maui in 1927, Brandt rose through the ranks of the state's educational institutions. She served as the only woman principal of a public high school for 17 years, as district superintendent on Kauai, as the first native Hawaiian principal of Kamehameha School for Girls before its merger with the School for Boys, and as a University of Hawaii regent during the 1980s, including four years as chairwoman of the board.
COURTESY KAMEHAMEHA SCHOOLS
Gladys Brandt: She believed education was the way to advance Hawaiian culture.
She somehow found the time and energy also to make important civic contributions to numerous institutions, including the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts, the Cancer Research Center of Hawaii and the John A. Burns School of Medicine at the University of Hawaii.
Brandt was known in the Hawaiian community as a woman of dignity and resolve, unafraid to take on controversial issues to further Hawaiian causes. As principal of the Kamehameha girls school, she revived the teaching of hula, which the missionaries had banned. Her co-authorship of the "Broken Trust" essay published in the Star-Bulletin in 1997 led to a state investigation and needed reforms of the Bishop Estate, since renamed Kamehameha Schools.
"She has been a mover and shaker in every area of Hawaii's social and political life for most of her 96 years," said U.S. District Judge Samuel King, a longtime friend and co-author of the "Broken Trust" essay. King said she was regarded as "every Hawaiian's Auntie Gladys" because of "her dedication to education and improvement of the lot of Hawaiians."
"She was a guiding light for the Hawaiian community and particularly for Kamehameha Schools," said Jan Dill, president of Na Pua A Ke Ali'i Pauahi, an organization of Kamehameha alumni, parents and teachers.
"She was an extraordinary person," said former Gov. Ben Cayetano. "I never met anyone who was so widely respected across all ethnicities."
Brandt was instrumental in the founding of the UH Center for Hawaiian Studies at the Manoa campus, ushering its creation through the Board of Regents and the Legislature. The center's building was rededicated last March as Kamakakuokalani, her Hawaiian name derived from her maternal grandmother, meaning "the upright eyes of heaven."
At the center's dedication ceremony, Brandt described her devotion to her profession: "In education, not anger, resides our future. In education, not ignorance, resides our hope. In education, not fear, resides justice." Those words and the memory of Gladys Brandt will continue to resonate through Hawaiian hearts and minds.
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