hkis – celebrating forty years
Milestones 1949 – First Lutheran schools established in Hong Kong. 1959 – Concordia Kowloon, the Lutheran High School, arouses the attention of officials in the Education Department when it sends its entire first graduating class in 1959, all 13 of them, to sit the government’s school leaving exam. All pass. March 4, 1962 – Reverend Lenard Galster, a Lutheran missionary in Hong Kong, conducts the first English-language Lutheran Church service, with 18 worshippers, at the now defunct, but then very elegant, Repulse Bay Hotel. 1962-1965 – Dr. Melvin Kieschnick, a Lutheran missionary serving as the Supervisor of the Lutheran Schools in Hong Kong [and Co-ordinator of Education for the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (Hong Kong)], Reverend Lenard Galster and Joseph H. Mache, Jr., a Lutheran businessman who was the Manager, Far East of Rayonier Inc, see the need for American-type education, grasping the vision of such a school sponsored by the Lutheran Church.
September 8, 1965 – The Director of Education, W.D. Gregg, rejects the change.
renovated apartment building at 43 Chung Hom Kok Road, on the south side of Hong Kong Island.
March 1966 – The Board of Missions extended a “call” to Robert E. Christian, a Lutheran teacher, principal and headmaster in the Our Saviour Lutheran School in the Bronx, New York City, to serve as the first headmaster.
July 1967 – A large, color brochure published in advance of its September opening, adds the tag line “The American School in Hong Kong”.
July 1964 – A survey is conducted of 1,100 (mostly) Americans on whether an American school is wanted.
April 28, 1966 – The groundbreaking ceremony in Repulse Bay is held.
February 25, 1965 – The Hong Kong Education Department approves a land grant of 43,000 square feet of land in Repulse Bay and an interest free loan of HK$1,150,000.
April 30, 1966 – R.W. Lundeen, Dow Chemical International’s General Manager for the Pacific Area writes of the immediate need for a high school. His innovative interim solution until the new school opens is to fund a provisional school.
March 1965 – The Board of Missions of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod gives its blessing to the HKIS project, authorizing a grant of HK$1,456,875 and loans of HK$1,748,246. August 1965 – Dr. Melvin Kieschnick tries to get the Hong Kong Government to provide a capital subsidy of HK$1,150,000 and an interest-free loan of HK$460,000, instead of an interest-free loan of HK$1,150,000.
May-June 1966 – The Board of Management agrees that HKIS should establish “a provisional elementary school program for the 1966/67 school year” in a leased apartment building until the new school is built. August 8, 1966 – The first headmaster, Robert E. Christian arrives. September 19, 1966 – HKIS opens its doors to 170 students, 37 of whom were in Grades 7-11, in a
1968 – Another HKIS brochure adds, “Education in the American Tradition” to the existing tagline. September 14, 1967 – HKIS opens a K-12 school in Repulse Bay, with 630 students. February 22, 1968 – HKIS’ new building dedicated. June 1968 – First HKIS graduating class. Fall 1969 – Mothers’ Club, the forerunner of the Parent Faculty Organization, is launched by Mrs. June T. Obayashi and Mrs. Madeleine Tang as a way to “utilize the services of mothers during the day and at the same time generate their interest and involvement in the school.” 1969 – Mothers’ Club assisted at the East Asian Regional Council of Overseas Schools conference in Hong Kong.
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