The school has received a pledge of $1.7 million from the Clarence Ching estate and foundation to launch the latter project but needs to raise the rest to make it a reality.

A third project — renovation of the athletic facilities, primarily the locker rooms — will follow once the first two are complete. There is no cost estimate as yet.

Kirimitsu expects to bring together a leadership team of people already at the school to help him guide it. But he also said he will be consulting with the Saint Louis community before moving forward on any initiatives.

Kirimitsu said this is an "exciting venture to raise the school to higher expectations and higher standards and build on what our predecessors have done."

He has agreed to a three- to five-year contract at an undisclosed salary. But he said it's less than what he makes at the University of Hawai'i, which is $256,248.

University of Hawai'i president David McClain said he will miss Kirimitsu at UH as the latter retires from the public sector.

"I've benefited daily from Walter's always wise and often witty counsel," McClain said in a statement, "and feel fortunate to know him not only as a colleague but also as a friend."

Kirimitsu was chosen after a yearlong national search and was one of three finalists, all lay people. There were 27 applicants for the position, most of them also lay people.

Saint Louis board of trustees chairman Dr. Reginald Ho said a survey of Saint Louis alumni and faculty had pointed the search committee toward opening the school to lay leadership, which he said is a nationwide trend. Two-thirds of the 28 Marianist schools are now headed by nonclerics. And only three members of the Saint Louis faculty are clergy.

"They wanted to see a person who had vision, leadership and was a good communicator," Ho said. "Regardless of religious or nonreligious, they wanted the best person."

The board also discussed the possibility of a nonclerical leader with the school's Marianist province leadership in St. Louis, Mo., receiving permission to select the "best person" for the school, without regard to whether the person is a member of the clergy or not, Ho said.

"Historically we've always had a clergy as leader," said Kirimitsu, who served as student body president of Saint Louis in his graduating year of 1958 and has been a trustee of the school since 1988 and its chairman from 1996 to 2002.

"This is very significant historically," he said. "But more important, the core mission of the Marianist Catholic school will not change. The parents and community need to know the core mission will never change."

Ho and Kirimitsu said that both the religious and educational standards of the school will continue, with a focus on educating the "whole person" and developing young people with strong character.

Current president Father Allen DeLong, 72, who had announced his intention to retire last year, remained an additional year while the search was under way. He intends to retire, travel and then go back to school at Chaminade with the idea that by December he may again be available to take another post. He has been an educator for 50 years, with his first teaching position at St. Anthony's school on Maui.

In his six years at the school DeLong has strengthened the academic standards as well as the campus ministry and religious retreat program.

"All of the structure will enable the transition to lay leadership," he said.

Under DeLong the numbers of both Advanced Placement and Honors courses have increased. As well, Saint Louis students take some advanced courses at Chaminade. Kirimitsu hopes to expand that.

Kirimitsu praised DeLong's leadership and said he will continue to build high academic expectations among the students — and launch a K-20 initiative to encourage more Saint Louis graduates to attend Chaminade University.

Acting Chaminade University president Brother Bernard Ploeger said he would welcome working more closely with Saint Louis.

"Already we do several things cooperatively, and to build on that and find ways that are beneficial to the students would be very advantageous," Ploeger said. "We're very interested in recruiting their students."

Since 2003, only 12 Saint Louis students have enrolled in Chaminade, compared with about 10 students per year from Kamehameha Schools, according to school records.

When DeLong first became president in 2000, there wasn't a single Saint Louis graduate attending the Marianist college that adjoins the Saint Louis campus and shares some facilities. Chaminade also offers generous scholarships to local students.

But Kirimitsu said Saint Louis graduates also attend top Mainland schools, including Harvard, Yale and Stanford. Last year, 98 percent of the graduates went on to college, DeLong said.

Reach Beverly Creamer at bcreamer@honoluluadvertiser.com.