Friends of Old Maui High School
Jill Engledow, Cynthia Conrad for
The Spirit Lives On!  A History of Old Maui High School
By Popular Demand...

In response to many requests, this page contains the photos and transcript of the 2008 Honor awards presentation.
Friends of Old Maui High School is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization formed in 2004 to preserve, revitalize and re-use the historic Old Maui High School structures and campus.

In order to draw support for the rehabilitation project, and to serve as a fundraiser in itself, the Friends of Old Maui high school created this book: The Spirit Lives On, a History of Old Maui High School at Hamakuapko. 
The school was the first public co-educational high school on Maui and opened in 1913.

In 1921, the high school’s architectural gem was built, a Mediterranean-style concrete administration building designed by Charles W. Dickey.

For the six decades following, thousands of plantation-era students attended the school.  Maui mayors, state legislators, judges, physicians, and - most noted - 1944 graduate Patsy Takemoto Mink are among alumni.

Since its 1972 closing, the school that housed so many memories is empty.  No more proms.  No more morning colors.  No more games.  Just weeds encroaching on its once glorious walls.

In 2005, Old Maui High School was named to Historic Hawai‘i Foundation’s list of Most Endangered Historic Sites.

“The Spirit Lives On” is the result of intense collaboration, dedicated research and editing, and determination.

Research involved many hours of sorting through written records, newspaper articles and personal interviews with MHS alumni by Jill Engledow.  Graphic design was led by Cynthia Conrad.


One of the greatest accomplishments of this book is the way it emotionally bonds the people of Old Maui high school to the building itself with a strong call to action to save the building that hosted so many memories, friendships and events. The book inspires pride in the community for a time that now only lives in these pages.  But the place can live on.

2008 Preservation Honor Awards