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open meeting dedicated to the Centennial, and one of the major
events of the final week was the Chamber of Commerce luncheon
for trustees and Centennial guests.

Meanwhile the alumni as a whole had been organizing under
Mr. Atherton for the financial drive, which was to be their princi-
pal activity for the year. As early as 1937 certain alumni had
suggested a special fund for their long-deferred gymnasium. As
Centennial plans were already in the air, they were persuaded to
forego the seperate drive in facor of a unified campaign for a
Centennial fund. The gymnasium was therefore given a high
priority among the objectives announced for the drive. A recita-
tion building was to be named Centennial Hall in honor of the
much publicized "first 34." Plans for the structure were drawn
and published and the site was selected. It was even planned at
one time to dedicate the site during Centennial Week, and it was
promised that names of all donors would be olaced in the corner-
stone. As we shall see, the war, a new administration, and a new
conception of punahou's future hace relegated this building to a
place among discarded objectives. At the time, however, the
exsistence of the architects' drawings gave a dinite feeling of
reality to Centennial Hall.

To meet enlarging educational needs the idea of a "Living
Endowment" was explained in detail at meetings and through
printed publicity from Mr. Bath's office. Friends were urged to
pledge annual gifts which could be regarded as interest (at 4%)
on a capital sum called the Living Endowment. The success
of the plan would depend, of course, on the regularity of the gifts
and upon the addition of new members to replace the older donors
as they dropped out.

From the school office some 6000 letters had gone out to
former students in 23 countries, and as the replies came in they
not only provided a wealth of data for alumni files, but it was
possible to detect certain "centers of concentration" where re-
unions might be held. Isolated cases would have to be dealt with
through the printed publicity. Paul Johnson ('24) headed a group
which arranged the series of alumni gatherings during April at
which some 600 persons renewed their ties with the school.
Dinners were held in Glendale for the Los Angeles agrea, in San
Francisco, Seattle, Portland, Chicago, Washington, Cambridge
and New York. The Glendale party, arranged by Una Appleby
Stewart, a former teacher, was the largest, as well as the first,
of these meetings. A special feature was the centerpiece at the
main table -- a model of Old School Hall made in loaf sugar by
Jan Schaafsma ('28). At all the dinners, President Shepard was
guest of honor, bringing news of the school and appealing for help
in raising the Centennial Fund. As a part of the preparation for

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