Hawaii Loa College

Harry S. Komuro, then superintendent of the Methodist Mission in Hawaii, and the founding trustees were Dr. Joseph Bevilacqua, general secretary of the United Church of Christ; Rev.

[1] Other early trustees included Herbert Choy, Frank Damon, Jr., Dr. Wesley Hotchkiss, Ernest K. Kai, and Ted Tsukiyama.

[1] In May 1965, the trustees hired the college's first president, Chandler W. Rowe, former dean of academic affairs at Lawrence University, who began assembling a faculty and administrative staff in order to be able to accept the first students in the fall 1967.

[2] Later presidents include HLC philosophy professor Philip J. Bossert (1978–86)[4] and University of Denver chancellor emeritus Dwight M. Smith (1990–92).

Lack of infrastructure made it very difficult to expand campus facilities to serve more students and raise more revenue, making operations a constant financial struggle.