Former dean Armando de Jesus passed away at the age of 71 last July 2 due to prostate cancer.
De Jesus was diagnosed with prostate cancer since he was 66, Research Center on Culture, Education and Social Issues Director Clarence Batan told the Flame.
The former dean led the Faculty of Arts and Letters from 2000 to 2003 and 2006 to 2009. He was the Vice Rector for Academic Affairs from 2003 to 2006 and the chairperson of the UST Department of Social Sciences from 1998 to 2000.
Batan stressed that De Jesus was “more than a dean” to some of the faculty members.
“He is a man of integrity, a man of few words, [and] a man of honor. He is very calm; he is very dignified. I really think he has touched a lot of lives kasi he is very fatherly,” Batan said. “He may be really considered as our father. He has that because he took good care of us.”
De Jesus was the director of the University’s Social Research Center from 1997 to 2000.
He also served as director of Personnel and Research and Development in the Archbishop of Manila from 1980 to 1996 and was an executive assistant to the Chairman of the Commission on Education and Religious Instruction of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines in 1978.
Batan said De Jesus’ faith kept him grounded in serving both the University and the Church.
“There is such spirituality in him that is fascinating […] He is a man of his family; he is a man of the institution. He loves UST; he cares for UST but it is not because it is UST, he cares for it as an institution because he is a man of the Church, the Catholic Church,” Batan said.
De Jesus finished his bachelor’s degree in theology in the University in 1969 and master’s degree in sociology in 1995. He finished his doctorate in educational management from UST in 2000. F – Vann Marlo M. Villegas
