Beatrice Watson Parrent

Dora Beatrice Watson was born in Canada and became a naturalized American citizen in 1909. In 1923 she married Charles Parrent in San Jose, California, and they moved to Hawaii in 1925, when Charles joined the staff of Kamehameha Schools as a manual arts instructor. Charles remained at Kamehameha for 20 years. During this early period, Beatrice taught at the Mother Rice Kindergarten in Kakaako.

The Parrents and their friends, Roy and Estelle Kelley, purchased real estate on Waikiki's Seaside Avenue in 1937 and built one-story apartments there. Together the two couples built the Ala Wai Terrace Hotel and Apartments in the 1940s. Charlie Parrent passed away in 1979, and Bea continued to manage the 239-unit Ala Wai Terrace until her death in 1984.

The Parrents' background as educators no doubt caused Bea Parrent to want to share their assets with the University of Hawaii and other educational and community organizations once she had passed away. Among the projects selected for support by Attorney Frank Hustace, Executor of the Parrent estate, was the Beatrice Watson Parrent Fellowship in Astronomy, an endowed fellowship awarded to post-doctoral researchers at the UH Institute for Astronomy.

The Institute for Astronomy is indeed grateful to Mrs. Parrent for her desire to help improve education in Hawaii and for the support she provided for the Beatrice Watson Parrent Fellowship in Astronomy.