Colonel Stanley Sagert
Superintendent
(1970–1971)
1st HBA President
(1971–1987)
Colonel Stanley Sagert was a decorated B-24 pilot during WWII, who served in North Africa and Europe. After the war, he was stationed in Europe, Asia, and eventually Hawaiʻi. Sagert saw value in HBA’s mission and enrolled three of his children at the school. After a critical meeting in 1970, when discussions of the school’s future were uncertain, Sagert’s ideas led to his appointment as superintendent of the school, and later as its first president.
Upon his appointment, Sagert began to share HBA’s story and plight with churches on the mainland. By the Spring of 1972, a collection of 12 Southern Baptist churches supported the school through their mission budgets. Five years later, in the Spring of 1977, 55 individual donors from the mainland formally organized into the Mainland Advisory Council.
In their first year, the MAC set a fundraising goal of $1.15 million, and would comprise 70 percent of all gifts given to the school. Starting an annual tradition, these MAC members would travel to visit HBA, meet the faculty and students, and see the school’s God-given mission lived out on a daily basis.
With the help of these faithful donors, drawn by Sagert’s campaign, the school’s finances had stabilized, and much needed expansion could begin to support the ever-increasing student body.
Col. Sagert pictured at bottom row, second from left
Col. Sagert meets with students
Sagert’s vision for HBA was a careful balance of faith and academics. He recognized that the school, rooted in the convictions and missional calling of its faculty and administration, set it apart from other private schools. At the same time, providing a high-quality education would be a means to attract and serve Christian and non-Christian families alike. Presented with the opportunity for faculty to demonstrate their faith in the classroom, Sagert believed that such an environment was critical to winning children to Christ.
The evangelistic Christian school accepts the risk in accepting children who are not Christian with the belief that Christian love and Christian values taught at the school will help to win the children to Christ.Stanley Sagert 1987