Hugh Pendleton and Mary Reeks McCormick
Founders
(1949–1960)
As missionaries with the Southern Baptist Convention’s Foreign Mission Board, Hugh and Mary McCormick spent nearly 20 years answering God’s call to minister to the people of Nigeria. However, due to the outbreak of World War II, the McCormicks found themselves indefinitely furloughed stateside.
During this time, the McCormicks searched for a new mission, and eventually learned of a request from the Hawaiʻi Baptist Convention, which sought to create a Baptist school in the Territory of Hawaiʻi.
With the financial support of the FMB, along with missionaries similarly displaced from their assignments in Asia, the McCormicks began to construct the foundations of a high school. Hugh’s vision was to build a brand new structure on eight acres of land. However, due to financial constraints, only two acres of land were secured, with the remainder of the budget dedicated to the acquisition and refurbishment of surplus army barracks.
Aerial view of the Makiki campus
HBA teacher Maurine King in the classroom, circa 1960's
In the Fall of 1949, Hawaiʻi Baptist Academy welcomed 36 students in the seventh and eighth grades. Within three years, the McCormicks watched enrollment balloon to 226 students, across elementary, middle, and high school levels. The school continued to grow steadily over the following decade until 1959.
Due to Hawaiʻi’s statehood, the FMB no longer had operational jurisdiction over Hawaiʻi, and as a result, many of Hawaiʻi Baptist Academy’s faculty and administrators were reassigned. Furthermore, operational funding responsibilities were transferred to the Hawaiʻi Baptist Convention, leaving the school with significant challenges in the following years.
In the 1960’s, a feasibility study concluded that Hawaiʻi Baptist Academy would not be able to financially support itself, and the barracks-turned-school fell into disrepair. By 1969, after a decade of turbulence and significant expenditures, the Hawaiʻi Baptist Convention moved to phase out its support for HBA, leaving the school’s future uncertain.
Dan Liu, former Honolulu Police Chief and HBA fundraising campaign chair, inspects termite damage at the Makiki campus.