CHARLES R. BISHOP

"Since the last meeting of this Board death has removed one of its number—Charles R. Bishop, who died at his home in Berkeley on Monday, June 7, 1915, at the ripe age of 93 years.

"Charles Reed Bishop was born at Glens Falls, New York, January 25, 1822, and in 1846, at the age of 24 years, migrated to the then almost unknown Sandwich Islands, settling at Honolulu.

"Three years later he became a naturalized citizen of the Islands, and ten years thereafter was commissioned a Noble of the Kingdom of Hawaii.

"In 1850 he married Bernice Pauahi Paki, a Princess of the Kamehamehas, and who later became the last living representative of Hawaiian royalty.

"During his long residence in Hawaii he was successively a member of the Privy Council of Five Kings, and was constantly honored with positions of public prominence, the duties of which he performed with such financial and intellectual integrity that he became a leading citizen of the Kingdom, and yet all his public duties were performed with a modesty which refused to appear conspicuous, seeking only to guard the interests of the community as a sacred trust.

"He was clear-headed, industrious and conscientious, doing everything in a quiet, straightforward way, and when he talked, he talked straight to the point, not afraid to say what he thought, and his opinions always carried great weight.

"In his long experience as the leading banker of the Hawaiian Islands he accumulated a large fortune, and gave liberally to charities, materially supplementing the beneficence of his wife who had inherited the Crown Lands and revenues of Hawaiian Royalty, and devoted it all to the religious and educational advancement of the youth of Hawaii, particularly endowing schools for male and female, Protestant and Catholic, kindergarten, elementary and university.

"The names of Charles R. Bishop and Bernice Pauahi Bishop will live in history as of the greatest benefactors of Hawaii.

"In 1891 following the collapse of the Kingdom, and the annexation of the Islands by the United States, he moved to San Francisco, and shortly thereafter was elected a directory of this company, a position which he retained to the day of his death.

"We, his co-directors, desire to hereby record our high appreciation of his wise counsel and uniform courtesy which, through years of association, has endeared him to us as it has to all whose fortune it has been to know him well.

"Be it RESOLVED that the foregoing tribute to his memory be spread upon the records of this board, and that a copy be sent to his surviving relatives."

Quoted from an obituary written by the Fireman’s Fund Board of Directors, 1915 [04-03-01-001-0020-0812]