I confess.
I love history.
All kinds of history, but especially local history because it’s often ignored especially in places like Florida where so much happens and so much is new.
But Boca Raton and Delray Beach have a local history rich with great characters and stories.
So I was delighted to recently receive a publication celebrating 80 years of Palm Beach State College.
That’s right, the alma mater of Burt Reynolds and thousands of others first opened its doors in 1933.
Since then, the school has grown enormously in size and importance and today occupies a central place in the progress of Palm Beach County.
But when it comes to history sometimes it’s the hidden gems that grab you.
In the commemorative magazine, there was a story about Palm Beach State’s (then known at Palm Beach Junior College) first graduating class in 1936.
The class of ’36 featured three people, two women and a gentleman named Frank Kamiya, who happened to live in Delray Beach. Not only was Mr. Kamiya the only male in the graduating class, he was Japanese, a rarity then in what was mostly a white student body.
Kamiya was born in 1915 in the famous Yamato Colony near Boca Raton. The Japanese immigrant colony was co-founded by Kamiya’s uncle Jo Sakai in 1905 and was well-known for its pineapples and vegetable farms.
Kamiya attended schools with other members of the Colony in Boca and Delray and a became a four year letterman on the Delray Beach High School basketball team graduating in 1933, when Palm Beach Junior College opened its doors.
While he received a basketball scholarship to Lakeland College, Kamiya turned it down and headed to the University of Florida. But financial hardship forced him to return home and attend Palm Beach Junior College. He would graduate with a teaching certificate and a degree in health and physical education.
Mr. Kamiya had hoped to become a teacher, but a job as a cook changed his ambitions and he pursued a career as a chef, specializing in the delicacies of Italy.
It proved to be a wise move and at the height of his career, Kamiya was considered to be among the best Italian chefs in the southeast United States.
Just a little slice of local history that we thought we’d pass along. That’s how history stays alive.
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