Melvin (Mel) Kieschnick

Co-founder of HKIS in the late 1960s

Dr. Melvin (Mel) Kieschnick was one of the co-founders of HKIS in the late 1960s, along with Joseph Maché and Rev. Len Galster.

Mel, a Lutheran missionary, served as the Supervisor of the Lutheran Schools in Hong Kong and was also the Co-ordinator of Education for the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (Hong Kong).

According to an article in Dragon Tales (Winter/Spring 2012), “He first came to Hong Kong in 1956, to help set up a system of Lutheran schools for the Hong Kong Chinese. At the same time, he served as Headmaster of Concordia Lutheran School in Kowloon. But as he recognized the growing desire among American expats in Hong Kong for their children to have an American education, he spotted an opportunity.” Mel remembered, “It was just a dream of a very, very few people – four or five of us – and then we did a survey of the American community. When we got those responses they were so affirming that I said: ‘Oh, I think there’s a possibility we could make this go.’”

Mel’s role included managing all the negotiations with the church headquarters in St. Louis, the Hong Kong Department of Education, and Crown Lands. He located the Repulse Bay site and then negotiated with Crown Lands to have it granted as the school site. He also negotiated authorization and funding for the school with the Mission Board of The Lutheran Church in St. Louis. He also served as the founding Chair of the school’s Board of Supervisors.

Unfortunately, due to Mel’s wife Jane’s medical emergency, he and his family left Hong Kong in late 1965 to return to the US. However, he has continued to keep in touch with the school.

In 2012, Mel visited HKIS to deliver an inspirational lecture to the school’s faculty and teaching assistants on the theme of “Big Dreams, Deep Commitment, Abiding Faith.” The lecture was part of the Charles W. Dull Visiting Scholar Speaker series. See this blog post about that speech, “Dialogue Across the Decades: A Conversation with HKIS Founder Mel Kieschnick”, by HKIS Humanities teacher Dr. Marty Schmidt.

Dave Kohl, who taught Art at HKIS from 1973 to 1980 and edited the 2007 Dragon Taels history book about the school, said recently, “Mel is a warm-hearted and enthusiastic proponent for creative and quality educational experiences. At 90, he still travels, writes, and speaks on behalf of Christian education anywhere, but mostly in Asia.”

In an interview published in Dragon Tales (Winter/Spring 2012), Mel commented that he hoped his legacy for HKIS would be “academic excellence with Christian distinctiveness, preparing leaders for responsible global citizenship.” There is no doubt that his hope has come true.

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