Statewide County HI Archives Biographies.....Yap, William Kwai Fong November 15, 1873 - 
************************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/hi/hifiles.htm
************************************************

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
J. Orr jessicanorr@gmail.com January 19, 2012, 8:34 pm

Source: The Story of Hawaii and Its Builders, Honolulu Star Bulletin, Ltd. Territory of Hawaii, 1925
Author: Edited by George F. Nellist

 WILLIAM KWAI FONG YAP, Bank Official. As assistant cashier of the Bank of 
Hawaii, Ltd., officer of the Chinese Fort Street Church for twenty-five years, 
organist and choir leader of that institution for twenty years, former 
president and secretary of the English-Chinese Debating Society, officer for 
many years of the United Chinese Society, executive officer of the Hawaiian-
Chinese Civic Club, and a leader in the establishment of the University of 
Hawaii, William K. F. Yap has long been identified with the financial, 
religious and educational life of Hawaii.
  In 1918 he initiated the movement to change the College of Hawaii from a 
limited course college to a real university. Working with the chairman of the 
Board of Regents and other pioneers in the movement, he was successful in 
obtaining the signatures of hundreds of persons, which led to the passage of 
an act by the legislature in April, 1919, crating the University of Hawaii. In 
1924 Mr. Yap was instrumental in raising a fund of $3,000 from the Chinese 
community for the foundation of three university scholarships for Chinese 
students of limited means.
  Mr. Yap is also treasurer of the Parent-Teacher Association of McKinley High 
School, president of the Chinese Athletic Club and a member of the Chinese 
Y.M.C.A., of which he was president three terms and vice-president six terms 
under President Goo Kim; Pan-Pacific and Ad Clubs. During the Revolution in 
1895 he was a member of the Citizens’ Guard, and in that same year, on the 
occasion of the late Dr. Sun Yat Sen’s visit to Honolulu, Mr. Yap joined with 
other young Chinese in the formation of a secret military company to aid the 
revolution in China, and was made captain of the organization. Drills were 
held at the home of the late Frank W. Damon under a Danish captain, Victor 
Backe, and later some of the members went to China to serve their country in 
the Revolution.
  Since Hawaii was made a Territory, Mr. Yap has been a member of the 
Republican party, and was commissioned chairman of the board of inspectors of 
election by former Governor George R. Carter for a four-year term. For twenty-
six years he has been associated with the Bank of Hawaii, Ltd., beginning in 
1899 as a collector. Since that time he has worked in every department in 
various capacities and on Oct. 1, 1923, was appointed assistant cashier.
  Mr. Yap began work in Honolulu in 1886 as an apprentice in a tailor shop, 
for eight years worked at that trade and at the same time was a clerk and 
interpreter in the law office of the late C. L. Carter. From 1894 to 1899 he 
was a clerk in the government postal service under the Republic of Hawaii.
  Born in Honolulu, on Nov. 15, 1873, he is the son of Joseph Tensiau Yap and 
Wong She Yap. He attended the Fort Street Mission School. in 1893 he married 
Kho Syak Fook of Hongkong, and they have eleven children, Alfred T. L. Yap, 
manager of Yap & Sons, insurance, who went to France in Nov., 1917, on the 
first trip of the Leviathan and served in various sectors of the American 
front for nineteen months, the first Chinese-American to see active service; 
Benjamin T. H. Yap, a medical student in an Eastern college; Charles T. T. 
Yap, teller in the Bank of Hawaii; Ruth L. T. Yap, instructor of mathematics, 
University of Hawaii; David T. W. Yap, University of Hawaii student; Eugene T. 
C. Yap, with McCabe, Hamilton & Renny Co., Ltd.; Rachael L. K. Yap, Hannah L. 
J. Yap and Francis F. C. Yap, McKinley High School students, and Gerald T. W. 
and Hamilton T. P. Yap.


File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/hi/statewide/bios/yap682bs.txt

This file has been created by a form at http://www.poppet.org/hifiles/

File size: 4.2 Kb