6.28.2019 | DIGS.NET 57
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L E G E N D S | T H U R S T O N M E M O R I A L C H A P E L
Conceived by the maestro of Tropical Modernism, the spiritual heart of a historic Honolulu campus
offers architectural reverence for Hawaii 's midcentur y era.
T H E H I G H E S T P R A I S E
W R I T T E N B Y J E N N T H O R N T O N
PHOTOGRAPHS:
COURTESY
OF
PUNAHOU
SCHOOL
e guiding spirit at Punahou School, the Honolulu institution that graduated a young Barack Obama, is the Robert Shipman
urston Jr. Memorial Chapel. Its namesake, a member of the school's Centennial Class of 1941, was a student at Yale at the
start of the Second World War, but eventually left the Ivy League for flight training and earned his wings in 1944. A first
lieutenant, he served with distinction in the Pacific but was killed at the end of the war. In this sense, the chapel—a gift from
urston's parents in memory of their only son—was born from the call of duty, only to heed the highest call of all.
