Loveday Conquest ’66 remembers well the stepped-up pace of HWs and reading assignments during her freshman year at the Claremont Colleges. Weekly assignments in math and foreign languages, required time in the language lab, and many pages of reading, much of it available only in two-hour chunks via the library’s reserve reading desk. She recalls thinking, well, this is not too different from senior year at Punahou – calculus test (Mr. Bowers) every Friday, German test (Herr Kieslich) every Thursday, and an AP English paper due each Monday (Mr. Nelson – and oh, those ruined Sunday nights!).
Conquest was also used to having to borrow and digest reserve materials from Cooke Library. Punahou had prepared her well for the pace and rigors of a college education. Listening to her dorm mates complain about how much harder college was compared to high school drove home the point that not all students had had the benefit of an educational experience like she had at Punahou.
These thoughts stayed with her throughout college and graduate school, and she realized the need to give back when she could, in the amounts that she could. As she neared retirement, she became aware of charitable gift annuities, which generate lifetime income for the donor and provide a legacy for Punahou upon one’s death. She created one in 2010 and another for her 50th reunion. Then came the Changing Lives Challenge which provided matching funds for gifts of $25,000 or more, to create endowed financial aid funds at Punahou.
Taking advantage of the match, she was able to start the Loveday ’66 and Lytha ’70 Conquest Endowed Financial Aid Fund. Her sister, Lytha Dee, has been an active member of the Class of ’70. “I realized that it was time for me to provide tomorrow’s students with the same opportunities at Punahou as had been given to me,” says Conquest.
