[5] Castle Hall, formerly the girls' dormitory when Punahou had boarding students, was used as a command center, buildings were connected with tunnels, athletic fields were used as parking lots, and the library was cleared to become sleeping quarters and an officer's mess.

Punahou students volunteered in hospitals and raised enough in war bonds to purchase two bombers and a fighter (among other airplanes), which were named after alumni who had fallen in service.

[10] The annual Sustainability Fair began in 2007 and included on-campus conservation challenges and off-campus coastline preservation.

On Rice Field, classes set up canopies to showcase sustainable undertakings and projects, often including local produce sales and informational handouts.

[11][12] To celebrate the school's homecoming, students, faculty, and teachers surround a 20-foot letter P, and ignite it at dusk.

With each student attired in either a blue blazer or a formal white Hawaiian dress, senior year ends with baccalaureate ceremonies at Central Union Church, and commencement at Stan Sheriff Center[13] (since 2018).

Punahou shares the entrance to Manoa Valley with the University of Hawaii main campus and a few other schools such as Mid-Pacific Institute.

Punahou students are a few minutes away from the trail to Manoa Falls, the beaches at Ala Moana and Waikiki, downtown Honolulu, Lyon Arboretum, and the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.

Punahou's location provides many opportunities for off-campus learning: field trip destinations for middle school students have included the Bishop Museum, Waikiki Aquarium, Waikiki Shell, Waikiki Natatorium War Memorial, Kawaiahaʻo Church, Sea Life Park, USS Arizona Memorial, Valley of the Temples Memorial Park, Fort Ruger at Diamond Head, Hanauma Bay, Honolulu Museum of Art, Honolulu Zoo, Iolani Palace, Hawaii State Capitol, and the beaches on Oahu's North Shore.

Tuition does not cover the entire cost of educating a student, and the school's endowment makes up the difference.

Students in that class also chose Texas Christian, Notre Dame, Vanderbilt, Villanova, Rensselaer Polytechnic, Rochester Institute of Technology, Michigan, Northeastern, Boston College, Olin Engineering, Norwich Military College, NYU Shanghai, Erasmus/Rotterdam, Yonsei/S.

12 had degrees from Harvard, Yale, or Princeton, 14 from Stanford, 17 from UC Berkeley, and 26 total from Ivy League schools.

[34] The Robert Thurston Memorial Chapel on campus was building designed and built in 1966 by architect Vladimir Ossipoff and feature textile screens made by local artist Ruthadell Anderson.

Thurston Chapel's wall meets at a pond formed by the spring and features a low hung stained glass.

[35] Before plans were made for a new middle school complex, America Online founder and alumnus Steve Case ('76) donated $10 million.

[40][41] Case Middle School consists of nine buildings with a total cost of roughly $50 million, made possible solely through donations.

With solar energy, efficient landscaping, rain catchment and ecofriendly materials, the complex received a platinum rating from the U.S. Green Building Council.

The school also has a fieldhouse for competitive athletics, an open-air weightlifting facility, a gymnasium for physical education and intramural sports, and a tennis center with eight hard surface courts.

[50] Students compete in 22 sports, including air riflery, baseball, basketball, bowling, canoe paddling, cross country, cheerleading, football, golf, gymnastics, judo, kayaking, riflery, sailing, soccer, softball, swimming and diving, tennis, track and field, volleyball, water polo, and wrestling.

[55] In April 2020, several former Punahou girls' basketball players filed a lawsuit over alleged abuse committed by their former coach Dwayne Yuen.

[56][57] Days later, the school disclosed additional sexual assault allegations dating back to the 1970s involving a former faculty member and baseball coach.

[59][60] The teacher had been suspended from teaching and banned from campus since late November 2020 pending an internal investigation, which he did not cooperate with.

Republican Charles Djou ('88) recently finished Neil Abercrombie's term as Congressman from Hawaii.

President Dwight Eisenhower appointed Judge Elbert Tuttle (1914) to lead the federal court that desegregated the South (the Fifth Circuit Four).

[67]John W. Gardner taught at Stanford and Hiram Bingham III at Harvard, Princeton and Yale.

Punahou alumni include endowed professors at Berkeley, Stanford, UCLA, Duke, Illinois, Notre Dame, Purdue, and Boston University, and research professors of medicine at UCSF, UCLA, UCSD, USC, Stanford, Harvard, Columbia, Duke, Indiana, Texas, Maryland, Pitt, Walter Reed, and Baylor.

General George Forsythe ('66*), formerly the academic vice dean at West Point, is the president of Westminster College (Missouri).