Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop

Bernice Pauahi was born in Honolulu, Oahu, in 1831, the daughter of high chiefs Abner Pākī and Laura Kōnia Pākī. She spent her early childhood immersed in native Hawaiian culture. At the age of eight she enrolled in the Family School for Young Chiefs, more commonly known as the Royal School. Run by a Protestant missionary couple, the Royal School inculcated _ali’i _children with an English-language curriculum of Western academics, etiquette and Christianity. Pauahi excelled in school and quickly adopted the Protestant faith.

Rejecting the obligation to wed within her royal lineage, in 1850 Pauahi married Charles Reed Bishop, a white American businessman with whom she was genuinely in love. While her husband built a fortune in business, Bishop taught Sunday school at Kawaiaha’o Church and gave piano lessons at the Royal School. She also became active in local Christian charitable organizations, including the Stranger’s Friend Society, which ministered to sick travelers, and the Women’s Sewing Society, which provided clothing for those experiencing material poverty. One of the most prominent couples on Oahu, the Bishops regularly hosted visiting dignitaries at “Haleakala” (their home) and became renowned for their hospitality.

In 1872, the dying King Kamehameha V named Bishop as his successor. She declined the crown, however, preferring to continue her service to the people of Hawaii as a civic leader and philanthropist. 

As the last royal heir of the House of Kamehameha, Bishop inherited vast family landholdings. Most notably, in 1883 she inherited 353,000 acres, or 9% of the islands’ total landmass, from her cousin Ruth Ke’elikōlani. With this bequest Bishop became the largest landowner in all of Hawaii. 

Bishop died of breast cancer in 1884. In her own will she allocated the bulk of her estate to establish and maintain two_ Kamehameha Schools,_ one for boys and one for girls, with preferred enrollment for Hawaiians “of pure or part aboriginal blood.” Charles Bishop faithfully executed his wife’s directive, opening the original Kamehameha Schools within the decade. 

Today, the Kamehameha Schools have grown into a statewide educational system serving more than 48,000 learners annually through preschools, K-12 campuses and community outreach programs. Still funded by Bishop’s endowment, the Kamehameha Schools remain faithful to her original vision, as avowed  in their mission statement: “to fulfill Pauahi’s desire to create educational opportunities in perpetuity to improve the capability and well-being of people of Hawaiian ancestry.”

Contributors: Maha Tazi, Erin Brown