The late Thomas C.H. Lum.
What do the USS Arizona Memorial and the interstate H1 and H3 viaducts on Oʻahu have in common? They were engineered by the late Thomas C.H. Lum, a distinguished structural engineer, whose career spanned more than 150 military, condominium, and residential building projects. He served the U.S. Army and later led his own firm, Thomas Lum and Associates.
Now, his legacy lives on through the Thomas C.H. Lum Endowed Fund for Engineering at Hawai’i Pacific University. Established in 2025 by his nephew, Michael Lum, Ph.D., HPU assistant professor of electrical engineering, and engineering program chair, the fund is designed to create opportunities for HPU engineering students to engage in meaningful learning experiences that augment and enhance their classroom instruction.
Michael Lum brings firsthand industry experience to his teaching, having worked as an engineer at Apple in Silicon Valley, and later as a senior scientist with Oceanit and software development manager with Makai Ocean Engineering in Hawai‘i. He first joined HPU as adjunct faculty in 2021 and served on the university’s Engineering Industry Advisory Council, helping shape curriculum to meet local workforce needs.
“As part of the engineering department, we want to have close ties with our local engineering industry and make sure that the kind of education we are producing for our students meshes well with industry needs,” said Michael Lum. “So that the graduates that come out of HPU are well suited for engineering positions in Hawai’i.”
Circa 1942 as a McKinley High School sophomore, Thomas Lum earned national distinction for constructing Navy approved model aircraft for wartime training, becoming one of only four students in the United States to attain the honorary rank of admiral aircraftsman..
The fund honors Thomas Lum, whose journey began in humble circumstances growing up in Honolulu in the 1930s and 40s. His father immigrated from China and worked as wait staff at the Moana Surfrider in Waikīkī, while his mother did laundry and sewed wigs. After graduating from McKinley High School, Thomas Lum earned a bachelor’s degree in architectural engineering from Washington University in St. Louis, Mo., and a master’s degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
“He wanted to support underserved, local students,” said Michael Lum, reflecting on his uncleʻs financial challenges to make it through college and graduate school. “I think one of his hopes would be to make it easier for students to make it into these engineering programs and to pursue a technical, innovative education.”
Beyond financial support, Thomas Lumʻs legacy includes a mindset.
“Stick with it,” Michael Lum said, echoing the advice and encouragement he believes his “Uncle Tommy” would give to todayʻs engineering students. “As an engineer, you can’t let yourself stagnate. You have to keep up with the field. It’s an innovative profession. Be innovative.”
The rewards, he added, come when students become professional engineers and can look back on “really amazing accomplishments.”
Michael Lum recalled being very fascinated, as an engineer himself, by the complexity of his uncleʻs work on the Arizona Memorial.
“From an engineering perspective, itʻs not like you have a nice concrete foundation and youʻre putting the building on top,” he said. “The memorial straddles the battleship. You had to do some pretty impressive civil engineering work to drive down these piers without harming or moving the ship.”
The H3 viaduct was another remarkable project.
“If you notice, the highway is up off the ground,” said Michael Lum. “There was a cultural reason for that. You couldnʻt just bulldoze everything. You had to raise it up.”
Fast forward to 2025: What would Thomas Lum think of generative AI and its role in engineering?
“I think he would have been all over it,” Michael Lum said. “I think he would have said, ʻIt is something we have to learn to use as a tool.’ AI can replace some aspects of the engineering work we do. But at the end of the day, it will always come down to an engineer with instincts.”
AI might generate plans, specifications, bill of materials, and cost estimates, but the engineer must review and validate the results.
“You have to determine if it is a viable design, one that will not fall down on people,” Michael Lum explained.
That way of thinking echoes one of Thomas Lumʻs guiding principles for emerging engineers: “To solve any problem, always ask yourself, ‘What do I expect for an answer?’”
In other words, even with advanced tools like AI, the engineerʻs role remains essential. The engineer must go beyond accepting the output of the tool and use critical thinking and technical knowledge to ensure the engineering solution makes sense.
That same instinct for critical thinking and innovation is what Michael Lum hopes to cultivate in HPU’s engineering students through both his teaching and the endowed fund established in his uncle’s honor.
Michael Lum sees great promise in HPU’s engineering students. “They’re all active,” he said.
“They’re more willing to ask questions and pursue lines of education outside or tangent to the topics we’re talking about. I love seeing that. That’s part of the innovative process.”
Through the Thomas C.H. Lum Endowed Fund for Engineering at Hawai’i Pacific University, the university’s engineering students will gain opportunities to prepare as the next generation of professional engineers. They will be ready to lead, solve complex challenges, and make a difference in Hawai’i and beyond.
“The fund is intended to encourage innovation in the students,” Michael Lum said. “I am really looking forward to seeing what kind of things come out of this fund. And I think HPU is exactly the right place for it.”
To learn more about creating an endowed fund, contact the HPU University Advancement team at: https://hpu.edu/giving/contact.html
