 Hi, I'm Rusty Komori, and this is Beyond the Lines on Think Tech, Hawaii. I was the head coach of the Punahou Boys varsity tennis team for 22 years, and we were fortunate to win 22 consecutive state championships. This show is based on my books Beyond the Lines and Beyond the Game, and it's about leadership, character, and creating a superior culture of excellence. My special guest today was a judge for our Intermediate Court of Appeals, Vice President for Legal Affairs and General Counsel at the University of Hawaii, and former president of St. Louis School. He is Judge Walter Kiromitsu, and today we are going beyond leadership. Hey, Walter, welcome to the show. Thank you very much, Coach Rusty. It is my honor and pleasure to be with you. Oh, it's my honor to have you on the show, Walter, and it's been so great. For the last few weeks, we've been able to really get together and talk a bunch, and you're someone that I greatly respect. I hold in high esteem. But I want to first ask you, Walter, I know that you attended University of Hawaii for college. How was it back then? When I attended University of Hawaii, I really appreciated being back home. I first went to St. Mary's College in Muraga, California for my freshman year, but I decided to transfer back home because I missed home, and the University of Hawaii at Manoa just was a perfect fit for me. The students were very diverse. They were very proactive, and I just enjoyed being at the university. And then I majored in Japanese language and literature, which was very, for me, it was a perfect fit because I spoke a little bit of Japanese. And the best part about my majoring in Japanese is that's where I met my wife. She also was majoring in Japanese literature, and so we started dating. And that was the best part of my UH education. Now, Walter, after UH, you went to law school at the University of Michigan, and that's one of the top law schools in the country, right? That's what I heard, and so I was afraid I might not be accepted. And so I applied at three different universities in the Midwest because I wanted to experience life in the Midwest. So I applied to University of Chicago, University of Notre Dame, and University of Michigan, and luckily, Michigan selected me, and I was able to enroll there and was elated. But when I started law school, I didn't realize it was so difficult. It was a totally different language from Japanese language and literature, and I had to learn the process of legal education, but I quickly picked it up and fortunately graduated from University of Michigan Law School. Wow, that's very impressive, Walter, and you have a beautiful family. You have two sons and a daughter, and your wife, May, I mean, I know that May has tons of impressive, awesome qualities. What's the biggest thing that you admire about your wife, May? I would say, Rusty, that the best word I can select to describe May is she's selfless. She just puts everybody else as a priority before herself and including myself, so she has totally dedicated her life to help and promote and advance myself as well as our children and our family. So this 2022 will make our 59th anniversary. So on July 20, 2022, we'll be married for 59 years. Wow, I love hearing that. We're going to have to celebrate, Walter. That's going to be awesome. And you're going to be first on my invitee list. Yeah, that's what I like to hear. And I'm definitely going to be there to celebrate with you and May. And Walter, as a judge, you wrote over 50 published opinions. What would you say is the toughest part of being a judge? I would say the word discipline. You need to have extreme discipline to be a judge, especially at the appellate court level, because at the appeals level, we hardly hear any oral arguments. So we just don't interface with the lawyers. We read all of the briefs, the appellate briefs that the lawyers submit. And then at the intermediate court of appeals, which we call ICA, at that level, at the time that I served, there were four judges. The chief judge was Judge Jim Burns, who passed away, Corinne Watanabe, and Simeon Akoba, and myself. So out of the four judges, we used to rotate in panels of three on each case, and each panel of three would discuss the case and arrive at a decision. Of course, two out of three at least, but most of the decisions were unanimous because we thoroughly discussed the merits of the case and pretty much achieved consensus at the end. And then one of the three judges wrote the published opinion. Now, the criteria for whether a decision becomes published is whether or not the three judges feel that the particular facts and merits of the case deserve to be a judicial precedent. So if we feel that there's new frontier or new law to be established, then the three of us decide, yes, let's publish it and select one of us to write the opinion. Wow, that makes sense. So apparently it happened 50 times for me during the time that I served on the ICA. That is just absolutely incredible that you have over 50. And Walter, you attended St. Louis for high school, and what kind of experiences did you have back then in high school at St. Louis? At that time, Rusty, St. Louis was just a high school from ninth grade to 12th grade. And at that time it was in the late 1950s. So therefore the St. Louis school consisted primarily of Marianist clergy. What I mean by Marianist clergy is there's an organization called the Society of Mary dedicated to honor the Virgin Mary, mother of God. And so the Marianists, let's see, they were, I would say about 95% of the staff, faculty and administration were Marianist brothers of clergy, including the head of school who was a Marianist brother or priest. During the time that I attended, there were two brothers, a brother, a Gerber and a brother, Oliver IU, who were presidents or headmaster of the school. The most influential impact that the St. Louis education had on me was the Marianist influence. They were dedicated to educate the young people of Hawaii and at St. Louis we're still all boys and we still are all boys, but for 175 years the Marianists have run or operated St. Louis. And this last year, 2021 was the 175th anniversary. Wow, that's such a tradition, Walter. And you became the first lay president of St. Louis and you were the president for nine years. And I remember back then there was some major challenges that you had to deal with. But what were some of your proudest accomplishments? I would say they're falling to several categories. The first and foremost need of St. Louis school at the time that I became the first non-clergy president of the school was the facilities and the structures were very outdated. They were at least all over 80 years old and just needed major renovations. So the first category of achievement or accomplishment was in the category of capital improvements. During the time that I served Rusty, the first major building that we were able to build was the Clarence T.C. Cheng Learning and Technology Center which was a five-story educational building, new brand new building and it cost about $12 million to build. So we got help from the Clarence T.C. Cheng Foundation for half of that amount. And then we had to raise the other half which we did, we matched it. And so the $12 million construction costs were covered through fundraising. The second major facility was what used to be called the Gerber Fieldhouse which was the athletic center for all of the major sports. And so the Gerber Fieldhouse was over, I would say over 80 years old at least. So the engineer who inspected the premises said, Walter, what you need to do is you need to demolish the Gerber Fieldhouse and replace it with a new athletic center. So I picked myself off the floor and decided we need to raise the necessary funds which came out to be $15 million to build a new athletic center which Dr. Glenn Madaris, my successor is completing. So we were able to raise $15 million half of which was again from the Clarence T.C. Cheng Foundation and we're able to match $7.5 million to complete the cost, estimated cost for the new athletic center. The new athletic center is open now from early 2021 or mid 2021. And so it's able to, it replaced the old Gerber Fieldhouse. So those were two major capital improvements. The second area was academics. And fortunately during my nine year tenure, I was able to hire Pat Hamamoto. We used to be the DOE superintendent and I convinced Pat to come on as principal for the school and she agreed thank goodness because I treated her to breakfast and she basically turned the academic curriculum completely around and improved it. She aligned the curriculum to the faculty background of faculty members. And so we had a faculty and curriculum that matched and she enhanced that to improve the curriculum to include technology, include robotics. And so she made a huge impact on the academic improvement of the school. So those are the two major areas that I can recall. Well, I absolutely love hearing these insights and the Clarence T.C. Cheng, you know, learning center and the gym. I mean, it's absolutely beautiful. And Walter, why, you know, when you reflect back, why were you successful as the leader of St. Louis school? Trustee, if I had read your book beyond the lines before I accepted the president position at St. Louis, I would have relied on the four P's. People, process and performance. And the fourth P was purpose. Yeah, that's great. It's the three four purpose, process and performance. Lining up my career at St. Louis along those, the model of the four P's. The first was the people. The people at St. Louis were just amazing. We had faculty members that were passionate, were dedicated, experienced and qualified. We had administrative staff that were totally supportive and very patient and dedicated. And then we also had the board of trustees who perfectly aligned with the administration to support and assist us all the way. The fourth people group was the St. Louis Alumni Association. Rusty, that group is an amazing group. They're housed in the St. Louis Alumni Clubhouse on Sheridan Street in Moili Lee. But the St. Louis Alumni Association stepped up to the plate and helped the school immensely. So the people made a difference. Now the purpose, we specifically aligned ourselves with specific goals, what we wanna achieve. And like I said, Catholic improvements, the academic curriculum, maintaining the athletics. And so there was a well-balanced educational plan or purpose. And then the process itself just developed. We just had an end goal and we had to work backwards like you said, one percent at a time. One serve, one set, one game, et cetera. So we had that process, we developed it and then resulted in goodness with the help of all the people in the performance or achievements that we were able to achieve. Wow, Walter, I'm impressed that you know the four P's from my book. And Walter, I mean, it makes sense. I mean, that's really the framework for success and that's what you did. And I wanna ask you about Marcus Mariota because he was at St. Louis while you were president. And what kind of impact does a Marcus Mariota have for St. Louis School? Marcus Mariota had a huge impact on St. Louis School and also for the state of Hawaii. When he was in the sixth grade at Nuono Elementary School, sixth grade, mind you, he wrote a letter apparently that was preserved over the years. And that, oh, I'm sorry, that's the fourth grade. But when he was in the fourth grade, he wrote that letter and the letter said, my dream is to go and attend St. Louis School one day. And ever since the fourth grade, he kept that commitment and he enrolled at St. Louis in the seventh grade. And so we were fortunate enough to have him from the seventh grade to the 12th grade. Of course, by the time he was in high school and especially his junior and senior years, he was the outstanding quarterback for the food championship football team. Now thereafter, Marcus attended University of Oregon, as you know, and he became an outstanding quarterback. And because of his influence, the St. Louis team went to cheer him on to win the Heisman in New York City. So there was a contingent from St. Louis that attended the Heisman ceremony. And fortunately, I was able to attend as part of the team of supporters. And fortunately, Marcus won the Heisman Award in New York City in that particular year. And since then, he has been a superstar for St. Louis School, for the state of Hawaii and just absolute gentlemen, totally supportive of St. Louis. He later, after he started his professional career, built his own foundation to help the students in Hawaii, especially at St. Louis School. So he established a scholarship financial aid foundation to help the youngsters of Hawaii. So Marcus Marriota is just magic. We're just fortunate to have someone like him. I totally agree with you, Walter. I mean, he is such outstanding character and he's definitely a role model. And about what every St. Louis student should be like. And Walter, Dr. Glenn Maderos, why was he the right leader to succeed you as St. Louis president? And what's the biggest thing you admire about Dr. Glenn Maderos? Dr. Glenn Maderos, he, we're fortunate, or St. Louis is fortunate to have someone of his character and his background. The most impressive thing about Dr. Glenn is his charisma. He has charismatic qualities that provide leadership for the students, administration, the faculty and the alumni. Second is his humility. He's one and raised on the island of Hawaii. He has ever since been very humble and respectful of everyone he associates with. And the third quality is he has experience. He has a PhD in education. He knows what he's doing. He's a good teacher and also now he's an outstanding administrator. So St. Louis is fortunate to have someone like Dr. Glenn. And I hope he maintains good health so that he continues for a long time at St. Louis. Everything you said there about Dr. Glenn, I completely agree. I mean, you and I are friends with Dr. Glenn. And yeah, I mean, he is such a great person and such a great leader. And I couldn't see anybody better than him to succeed you there, Walter. And Walter, I wanna ask you about my books. You talked about the four Ps earlier. And I feel so honored that you like the books. What are some things that you liked about it? This is the book starting in 2017. And then this is the book in 2020. I like both books. They're excellent. Now, if I had known the contents of this book while I was serving as president, I would have made a better president and been more successful. But now in retrospect, reading these points that you made, the thing that resonated the most were the four Ps because it fits well with life in general. Everything we do pretty much falls within those four Ps of people, purpose, process and performance, peak performance. The other aspect that I liked about the book beyond the game, beyond the game, we're talking about coaching, about not necessarily just merely knowing all of the fundamentals of what you're coaching, but how you coach and how you provide guidance and how you share with that with the people on the team. And that's what I'm most impressed with your books is that you always talk about greatness. How to achieve superior greatness. And the other part is you don't leave it at that point where you achieve greatness. You say, we must, we have a duty to share that greatness with others. Those two points really resonate with me. Walter, you're going to be my agent. But you know, my commission is free, so you shouldn't have any hesitancy. Well, I feel so grateful that you really, you love the books. And Walter, if we're looking at all schools, public and private, what can we do to really enhance and improve the level of excellence across the board with everyone? We really need to improve the relationship between the private schools and the public schools in Hawaii. The private schools have an association called the Hawaii Association of Independent Schools. Of course, the public schools have the Department of Education and their board. What would be wonderful is if there's further or more collaboration between the two groups. And for instance, one idea that I was thinking of is if the two private and public schools can collaborate to establish a mentorship program for students. It doesn't matter whether they're in the private school or public schools, but to have a mentorship program that is jointly promoted and put together by the two entities for the benefit of our students in Hawaii. For example, in the athletic circle, we have the OIA, which is a sort of a partnership between the private and public schools. And finally, they're merging together so that public and private schools can compete with each other. And there should be further enhancement of that merger. But if we can do that, the same type of partnership for academics and for technology and for the development of students, that would be wonderful. And I volunteer to help with that. Yeah, I like seeing your vision like that, Walter. And you're right. I mean, because it's happening in athletics, there's no reason why it can't happen in other aspects of the schooling, right? It's so true. Now, Walter, as a leader, everyone has their own style. How would you describe your leadership style? In looking back as to being a leader, I kind of traced back to St. Louis and we were taught at St. Louis when we were students of a phrase, a Latin phrase called memoir at Fidevas, mindful and faithful. That phrase really stuck with me throughout my life. Mindful of our duties to society, to other people, and faithful to our core values, character, integrity, humility and respect. So that phrase memoir at Fidevas has stuck with me and kind of been my model to provide the leadership I could provide. The other phrase that has developed is what I learned at the university. And that phrase in Japanese is, shakai no tame ni yakuni tatsu hito ni narinasai. Which means become or strive to become a person useful to society. And so that has been impactful for me is am I being useful to serve others? And if so, then I need to pursue it, I need to achieve it, and then I need to go forward. So those two concepts have pretty much guided my style of leadership. I like hearing that, Walter. And Walter, before we wrap up, I wanna ask you one more question. How do you define greatness? The greatness to me is, again, going back to that being useful to the society. So everybody has different skills. Everybody has different experiences. Everyone has different qualities. Within the framework of that particular individual, if that person can achieve superior enhancement or achievement of his or her qualities and skills, and they can do it following the four Ps, that I would say that person has achieved greatness. And secondly, according to Beyond the Lines, if that person once achieves greatness, can share it with others, then that's the ultimate achievement for that individual. So it doesn't matter whether you're president of St. Louis School or general counsel, it matters what that person has, or what qualities that person has, that skills that person has, and whether that person utilizes the skills to achieve greatness. And that's greatness, how I define greatness. I like that definition from you, Walter. And I really wanna thank you, Walter, for sharing your wisdom. You're somebody that I really look up to, and I call a friend. And I feel so honored to just to know you. And thank you for taking time to be on the show today. Rusty, it's again my honor and pleasure. And the only regret is I didn't get to know you sooner because I didn't know how great an individual you are when having read your books and listened to your achievements. It's incredible for someone of your young age to achieve so much and willing to share it with others for forever. So thank you very much, Rusty, for the honor. And I'm here anytime, no charge, anytime we can interview, I'll be here. I'm gonna take you up on that, Walter. Thank you. And thank you for watching Beyond the Lines on Think Tech Hawaii. For more information, please visit rustycomory.com and my books are available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. I hope that Judge Walter and I will inspire you to create your own superior culture of excellence and to find your greatness and help others find theirs. Aloha. Aloha.