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Bernice Pauahi Bishop
Bernice Pauahi Bishop
Spouse	Charles Reed Bishop
Full name
	Bernice Pauahi Pākī Bishop
Father	High Chief Abner Pākī
Mother	Princess Laura Konia
Born	December 19, 1831; Honolulu, Oʻahu, Hawaii
Died	October 16, 1884 (aged 52); Honolulu, Oʻahu, Hawaii

Bernice Pauahi Bishop (December 19, 1831–October 16, 1884), born Bernice Pauahi Pākī, was a Hawaiian philanthropist, aliʻi, and direct descendant of the royal House of Kamehameha. She was the great-granddaughter of King Kamehameha I and the last surviving descendant of his royal line. Her estate is the largest private landowner in the state of Hawaiʻi. The revenues from these lands are used to operate the Kamehameha Schools, which were established in 1887 according to Pauahi's last will and testament. Pauahi was married to businessman and philanthropist Charles Reed Bishop.

[edit] Life

Born in Honolulu to High Chief Abner Pākī and princess Laura Kōnia on December 19, 1831, Pauahi was raised by kuhina nui (prime minister) Kīnaʻu Kaʻahumanu II and was later educated by Protestant missionaries at the Chiefs' Children's School.

Her father, Aliʻi Abner Kuhoʻoheiheipahu Pākī (c. 1808-1855), was a noble from the island of Molokai, and son of Aliʻi Kawao and Kalani-hele-maiiluna Pākī, who descended from Aliʻi Aimoku of the island of Maui.

Bernice's mother was Princess Laura Kōnia (c 1808-57), declared Royal Highness by decree of her grandfather Kamehameha I. She was the younger daughter of Aliʻi Pauli Kaoleioku (1767-1818), by his second wife, Aliʻi Kahailiopua Luahine, was an illegitimate but legitimated natural (eldest) son of King Kamehameha I. She was named for her aunt Queen Pauahi (c. 1804–1826), the widow of King Kamehameha II.

Bernice Pauahi was adopted at birth by Princess Kinaʻu Kaʻahumanu II, Kuhina-Nui. She was sent back home when Kinau died of the mumps in 1839.

Contrary to a chiefly posthumous but popular belief, the Bernice Pauahi never used in her lifetime, nor was officially entitled to, the title Princess. This frequent error is repeated in a wide variety of modern publications.^{[citation needed]}

Beginning at age eight, Pauahi went to a the Chiefs' Children's School (also called the Royal School) until about 1846. Her teachers were Mr. and Mrs. Cooke. Pauahi greatly enjoyed horseback riding and swimming, and she also liked music, flowers, and the outdoors. She dressed like any fashionable New York or London woman and wore the trappings of the Victorian Era.

Pauahi married businessman Charles Reed Bishop in 1850 despite the objections of her parents. It had been planned from childhood that Pauahi, born into Hawaiian royalty, would marry her hānai (adopted) brother Prince Lot Kapuāiwa. Per her request, very few people attended her wedding. One of the few witnesses was Princess Elizabeth Kekaʻaniau, her cousin. The couple had no children of their own; they adopted a son from Pauahi's cousin Ruth Keʻelikōlani, but the infant died at the age of six months.

Prince Lot Kapuāiwa became King Kamehameha V in 1863, and offered Pauahi the throne on his deathbed in 1872. But, taken aback, she replied, "No, no, not me; don't think of me. I don't need it." The king pressed on. But she again spurned the throne: "Oh, no, do not think of me. There are others." After considering the alternatives, all of whom were rejected, the king said no more. The king died an hour later. Pauahi's refusal to accept the crown allowed the House of Kalākaua to come to power. No one knows why Pauahi refused the throne. The answer may have been in her letters left in the care of her husband. Unfortunately, they were destroyed during the Great San Francisco earthquake of 1906.

On October 16, 1884, at the age of 52, Pauahi died of cancer at Keōua Hale, Honolulu. She is interred in the Kamehameha Crypt at Royal Mausoleum of Hawaii at Mauna ʻAla on Oʻahu. After her death, her husband Charles Reed Bishop helped establish the Kamehameha Schools in 1887, and founded the Bishop Museum in Honolulu in 1889 as memorials to Pauahi.

[edit] Kamehameha Schools

Bishop wished that upon her death a portion of her estate be used to establish a school for educating boys and girls. The 1883 will directed that a portion of her estate be held in trust "to erect and maintain in the Hawaiian Islands two schools...one for boys and one girls, to be known as and called the Kamehameha Schools."^[1] She directed her five trustees to invest her estate at their discretion and use the annual income to operate the schools

When she wrote her will, only 44,000 Hawaiians were alive. After Mrs. Bishop's death in 1884, her husband Charles Reed Bishop started work in carrying out her will.

The original Kamehameha School for Boys was established in 1887 on the site of the current Bishop Museum. The girls' school was established in 1894 on a nearby campus. By 1955, the schools moved to a 600 acre (2.4 km²) location in Kapālama Heights. Some time later, Kamehameha Schools established two more campuses on outer-islands: Pukalani, Maui and the Kamehameha Schools Hawaii Campus in Keaʻau on the island of Hawaii.

[edit] Will controversies

Trustees were instructed "...to devote a portion of each year's income to the support and education of orphans, and others in indigent circumstances, giving the preference to Hawaiians of pure or part aboriginal blood..." Additionally she directed that: replacement trustees be appointed by the Hawaiʻi Supreme Court, and that they be Protestants; that all teachers be Protestant, without regard to denomination. These clauses were deemed unconstitutional in 1993 by the 9th Circuit Court.^[2]

On December 5, 2006, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco overturned an earlier ruling in the John Doe vs. Kamehameha Schools lawsuit which ruled the Kamehameha Schools policy amounted to unlawful discrimination. The 8-7 decision allows Kamehameha Schools to continue its native Hawaiians only admissions. Eric Grant, the attorney for John Doe, said he would appeal to the Supreme Court,^[3] but the parties settled out of court and certiorari was accordingly denied.

[edit] Ancestry

[edit] References

^ Kamehameha Schools - Bernice Pauahi Bishop's Will and Codicils
^ E.E.O.C. v. Kamehameha School/Bishop Estate, 990 F.2d 458, 460-464 (9th Cir. 1993).
^ http://www.cnn.com/2006/EDUCATION/12/05/hawaiian.school.ap/index.html

[edit] External links

[will-0] Kamehameha Schools - Bernice Pauahi Bishop's Will and Codicils

[1] E.E.O.C. v. Kamehameha School/Bishop Estate, 990 F.2d 458, 460-464 (9th Cir. 1993).

[2] ttp://www.cnn.com/2006/EDUCATION/12/05/hawaiian.school.ap/index.html

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