Although he's is not supposed to know it yet, Steve Piper will be draped in a toga and paraded around the Punahou School Carnival midway Friday on a chariot. The moment will be in honor of Piper's departure after 25 years as a driving force behind the Punahou Carnival.

The little secret's all in keeping with this year's theme — Toga Times: Our Big Fat Greek Carnival. So don't let him know.

Still, "it's hard to surprise me around here," admitted Piper, 57, Punahou School's physical plant director. His retirement at the end of the year may mark the end of his career at the school, but the grand school carnival tradition that has been with him all his life will continue.

That's part of the lure for so many to the school carnival, which starts Friday. It's what Piper describes as its magical appeal.

"I was part of the carnival as a child growing up shadowing my father," said Piper, who Thursday was wearing a 1988 candy-striped red, white and blue carnival shirt (the theme that year was Rag Time Razzmatazz, he pointed out).

"And I was part of it as a Punahou School student. And then I was part of it for a period as a parent volunteer. And then in 1982 I came to work at Punahou full time, and I've been at the physical plant since."

PUNAHOU LEGACY

Piper was born at Kapi'olani Hospital not far from the school. The main road that goes through the school, Piper's Pali, was named after his dad, Leo Piper, who also was the school's physical plant director.

Among the wad of keys he carries each day is one, a Punahou School master key, that he's had since he was barely big enough to straddle a carousel horse.

"It still unlocks the classroom door," he said with pride as he dangled the well-worn key.

Among Piper's cherished possessions is a black-and-white photo of him taken more than a half-century ago while sitting on a Punahou Carnival merry-go-round. He was 5 when that snapshot was taken.

The point of so much nostalgia, according to Piper, is this: What makes the carnival so unique is that his own experience isn't out of the ordinary. There are many like it.

"Carnival is a well-oiled machine," he said. "You have people who come in as kindergarten parents who get involved every year after that with their children. And you have people who work here who have been part of it for many, many years.

"The truth is, if something happened to me tonight and I wasn't here tomorrow, the carnival would not skip a beat."

Virtually every aspect of the event touches whole lives and even entire generations, he said. Even as Piper was talking, for example, Porpilio "Pop" Tamala, who's pushing 80, was helping set up the E.K. Fernandez concessions and rides at another part of the midway.

Tamala has been a part of the Punahou School Carnival since Piper was in diapers.

"I've been doing this 60 years," Tamala said. "This is my last year."

He said the words with conviction — just as he did a decade ago when he'd been doing the school carnival for only 50 years.

When Tamala started out in 1947, the Punahou School Carnival had one Ferris wheel, a merry-go-round, pony rides and a half-dozen or so concession and game stands. When Piper's junior class organized the carnival 20 years after that, the event took in $98,000. These days the carnival boasts nearly two dozen rides alone, dozens more booths and concessions, and rakes in around $1.5 million in two days.

'PART OF YOUR LIFE'

Tens of thousands of people attend each night.

After the carnival shut down for World War II, one of the people instrumental in re-creating it in 1945 was the grandmother of the school's current director of communications, Laurel Bowers Husain.

And Husain is only one among the multitude of people whose lives have been affected by the carnival ever since.

"I was a student here from 1959 to 1971, so I was at the carnival for all of those years and probably before that," Husain said.

She's still at it to this day. Part of it for her is that the school carnival captures treasured moments from a wonderful time in the past — like hearing a favorite old song.

"It just becomes part of your life," she said. "It's bigger now, I think. But essentially to me it still has the same flavor. Walking through carnival I just get these wonderful memories from back when I was a kid. It's like, 'I remember this!' "

Gale Wilson, staff carnival coordinator, who oversees the activities of thousands of parent volunteers, agreed.

"But because I did this for a number of years as a parent volunteer, I don't worry about carnival," she said. "In fact, it's one of my favorite subjects. It's never the same, because each year the junior class runs it. It's always exciting. It's kind of a snowball thing. Once it starts rolling, there's no stopping it."

The carnival starts at 11 a.m. today and runs through Saturday.

MOVING TO OREGON

Piper, of course, won't miss it. Although he and wife will be moving soon to Oregon, he's adamant that he'll come back for carnival next year — to participate, not as a director, not as a parent volunteer, and certainly not as a student. He'll be back, he said, "as a kid again."

His old friend Tamala could be back, too — even though he insists this year will be his swan song.

"I've told them if they need anything to give me a call," Tamala said. "But I've told 'em, 'Don't call too loud. I might hear you.' "

Reach Will Hoover at whoover@honoluluadvertiser.com.