Hong Kong International School (HKIS) turns 60 this school year, and the event series “Celebrating HKIS 60” opened with a Homecoming Week that filled the campus with alumni and former faculty. “The fact that I came back nearly 50 years later since I first came to HKIS speaks well for the impact that this school has,” said Lauran Bethell, a former faculty member.
Janet Taylor, another faculty member, said: “There are just so many amazing things that happen here. It changes you as a parent. It changes you as a teacher. It changes you as a child.”
The HKIS they returned to has grown into a two-campus school, with one campus in Tai Tam and another in Repulse Bay. Yet its core mission remains much the same: to dedicate the mind to inquiry, the heart to compassion, and life to service and global understanding, all through an American-style education grounded in the Christian faith and respecting the spiritual lives of all.
Founded in 1966 by American business professionals and the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod, HKIS has served a growing community for 60 years. Source: Hong Kong International School
How it all started
In 1961, Repulse Bay felt like a world away from the busy streets of Central Hong Kong. It was a quiet coastal neighbourhood where many American families settled to enjoy a slower pace of life. Among them were Joseph Mache and his wife, Dottie, who had moved from the US the year before with their three sons. Mache had been posted to Hong Kong as Far East manager for a real estate investment firm and the family chose to live on the South Side, far from the city’s English-speaking schools.
“I remember how early our kids had to wake up for school,” Mache said. “We would all climb in the car for the long drive to a vehicle ferry in Central that would take us across the harbour. We would drive further north to one of the few English-speaking schools in Kowloon. Sundays were also a trek. We would head way up to Tai Po Road to attend church services.”
While the commute wore on the family, it did give them an idea. “The families in our community needed a school closer to home,” Mache said. “We had been thinking about starting a school with an American curriculum on the South Side, with a church on campus, to serve the community.”
On Sept. 4, 1961, 400 households who wanted something closer to home received an invitation to gather in Repulse Bay. The first worship service, led by Pastor Leonard Galster, was held the following March at the Repulse Bay Hotel. That small congregation eventually became the Church of All Nations, which later shared a campus with the school Mache had imagined. Today, it remains part of the HKIS community.
From that small gathering of parents and pastors, support steadily grew. Within the school’s first few years, enrolment had reached 500 students. After years of planning, Hong Kong International School officially opened on September 19, 1967.
HKIS empowers students to be inquisitive about themselves and the world around them, guiding them to become empathetic thinkers who ask the questions that matter. Source: Hong Kong International School
Sixty years of achievements and growth
The story that began in Repulse Bay 60 years ago is still very much alive at HKIS. This September, the school is revisiting its origins through a student drama and an interview with Eric Mache ’68, Joseph Mache’s son, giving students and alumni a chance to reconnect with the people behind its founding.
In November, HKIS will mark the 60th day of 2026 by having its mascot, Torch, join students on campus. Then, in January 2027, the entire community will gather on the HKIS field to mark the 60th year of HKIS.
But it does not take big events to see the legacy of the school’s founders and history. They live on in what HKIS students achieve every day.
In March 2026, HKIS students took the gold division title at the interschool sailing festival. Three years earlier, Arthur Zhang ‘24 walked off with a top-ranking position in the world for competing in the International Biology Olympiad (IBO) in the UAE. Cellist Kristy Luk ‘24, leader of the school’s Appassionata Quartet, took her music into Hong Kong charities including Mighty Oaks and Caritas, organising charity concerts alongside her quartet work.
And there is no shortage of students busy adding to this list with their owns wins and memories.
“My favourite memory is down at the Middle School playground playing football with all of my friends during lunchtime,” said Joshua Luke Chen ‘26.
For Leah Imran ‘26, it is making costumes with her parents during Lower and Upper Primary. “Make-O-Ween and Book-O-Ween were some of the core highlights of HKIS for me,” she said.
These are the kinds of days the founding families were after when they decided their children deserved a school close to home. HKIS has, of course, evolved to become so much more than that. As Dr. Ron Roukema, Head of School, puts it: “HKIS is where great students become great people.”
Looking ahead, HKIS is working with Siemens, a global technology company, on a five-year sustainability partnership to introduce smart technologies, reduce carbon emissions, and support its long-term net-zero goals. The initiative will turn the campus into a living laboratory, giving students the opportunity to see sustainability in action.
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