Silliman U honors FVR, alumni in a memorial service on August 26 in Dumaguete City

MINERVA BC NEWMAN

DUMAGUETE CITY -- Silliman University (SU) will honor the late former president Fidel V. Ramos (FVR) and other alumni in a memorial service at the Silliman Church on August 26 during Silliman’s 121^st Founders Day in Dumaguete City, Negros Oriental.

The Alumni Affairs Office initiated the memorial service to pay tribute to FVR and alumni who have gone ahead, particularly those belonging to classes/batches who plan to have their reunions during the 121st Founders Day.

According to a press statement from the SU-Office of Information and Publications (OIP) that on Silliman University conferred on former president Ramos the degree of Doctor of Humanities, honoris causa on August 28, 1993.

He was cited for having been elected as the first Protestant Filipino President, for launching peace initiatives and promoting international relations, devoting work to support church affairs on both local and national levels, and living life fully in the service of others.

Through the years, the late President had been a steadfast friend of Silliman University. He had scuba diving expeditions around the nearby coral reefs that Silliman scientists and students have helped preserve.

Former president Ramos at the opening of the Fidel V. Ramos Reading Center last August 25, 2014. (Photo by Shan Yvonne Peras, SU Camera Club)

In his honor, Silliman University also established the President Fidel V. Ramos Room in 2014 at the Robert Benton Silliman & Metta Jacobs Silliman Library, containing his published books from 1993 to 2017, the statement reads.

He has also been a guest speaker on campus several times and was instrumental in reopening the University during the Martial Law days in 1972. His visit during those difficult times extended his hand of friendship to assure SU of his support.

At that time, it was his unique but pleasant task to facilitate the release of the Sillimanian detainees and he declared that the University was already free to reopen after closure.

The memorial service is one of the many activities prepared by the other units in the University to celebrate the 121st Founders Day with the theme “Proclaiming God’s Faithfulness and Our Resiliency” from July 30 to August 30, 2022.

In a Facebook post by a Silliman alumnus Ed Dames shared that on August 5, the Christian community led by the Cosmopolitan Church of Manila, the home church of the late President Fidel V. Ramos in cooperation with the Sillimanians in Metro Manila gathered at the Heritage Park Main Chapel in Taguig to Celebrate the Life & Legacy of “our brother in the Lord who fought the good fight and finished well.”

Moses Atega, another Sillimanian on his Facebook post remembers Fidel Valdez Ramos with Dr. Betty Cernol McCann (now SU President), enjoying a fruit basket from the Silliman Cafeteria, who said that “Silliman University has been a labor of love - the love for quality education based on the Christian values of peace, freedom and the golden rule.”

“I am happy to note that, through the years, the University has consistently produced graduates and scholars of Outstanding Excellence, products worthy of its Founders' Dream…” FVR said this during his confirmation of Doctor of Humanities Honorary degree in 1993, Atega wrote.

FVR at 94, a fellow Silimanian died on July 31, 2022 at the Makati Medical Center.  He suffered from a heart condition and dementia as reported by the New York Times. (Photos: SU Facebook/Google Images)