Read on September 05 by Dr. Rose Baseleres
Good afternoon!
I consider this an honor and a privilege to be asked by Dr. Margie Udarbe-Alvarez to read this tribute to her father, written by Dr. Crispin Maslog, my former mentor, boss, and later, ninong. Dr. Maslog was the first fulltime and the longest-serving director for 15 years, from 1967 to 1982, of the then School of Journalism and Communication, later known as School of Communication. During these years, Dr. Maslog and Dr. Proceso Udarbe were colleagues in the Deans Conference. Within these years also, specifically in 1976 and 1977, the Diamond Jubilee Bookwriting Project was launched.
The history book with the red cover entitled, Silliman University 1901-1976, was co-authored by three University administrators, namely: Dr. Edilberto K. Tiempo, Dr. Crispin C. Maslog and Dr. T. Valentino Sitoy, Jr. — a creative writer, a journalist, and a historian — all well-known and respected in their fields of endeavor. The massive research and data-gathering that went into the writing of the history book needed the help of several research assistants. I was one of the research assistants who worked directly with Dr. Cris Maslog.
While Dr. Maslog was on campus recently during the 112th Founders Day celebration, he made it a point to visit his friend and contemporary on Aug. 26, barely three days before Dr. Udarbe passed away. It was a long goodbye, somehow Dr. Maslog felt that could be the last time he would see his friend alive.
The following paragraphs were culled from Chapter V entitled, “Years of Trial”. One particular section, “Blessed Are the Peacemakers,” is a brief profile of Dr. Udarbe, written at the time after he was designated in 1971 as the 6th Acting President of Silliman University. May I now read that section….
Dr. Proceso U.Udarbe, looking at things in perspective, was perhaps the man of the hour for the University. The most urgent need for the University in 1971 was for the ministry of healing, and who could have provided it better than a minister who was former dean of the Divinity School? Dr. Udarbe’s personality and training equipped him well for the job of reconciliation.
A warm person with a pleasant manner, Dr. Udarbe is a master of the art of compromise. He wants to please people who come to him with their problems. He is never blunt, even if he disagrees with you. He disagrees in the most agreeable manner. He is effective in public speaking, a talent which is an asset to any administrator, and which he owes to his training as a minister of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines.
His warm, humane nature showed itself in his teaching. One of his former students, in a testimonial during the faculty-staff retreat in 1976, mentioned Dr. Udarbe as the faculty “I remember best.” Said the student who is now a faculty member herself: “He was very friendly and unselfconscious… He looked happy to see us… there was a good rapport between the students and the teacher.”
Dr. Udarbe is a Sillimanian through and through. He came to Silliman in 1946 as a theology student, and like most theology students, he worked his way through college. The first job he got on campus was as security guard for which he received P30 a month. He was assigned to daytime duty by the chief of the security guards at the time, Prof. Timoteo Oracion. Little did both realize at that time that by a twist of fate 26 years later, Acting President Udarbe, the former security guard, would appoint Dr. Oracion, his former boss, as Director of Security in the tension-filled days following martial law.
Later on the young theology student became janitor of Channon Hall which used to be the library and classroom of the theology students. A few months later he was appointed hospital chaplain by Dr. Jose S. Garcia, at that time director of the Silliman Mission Hospital, now Silliman University Medical Center. When Dr. Udarbe became acting president, Dr. Garcia was medical director of SUMC.
After graduation the young Udarbe became minister of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP) in Gingoog City. Later he became the national director of Youth and Student Work of the UCCP. For a year he went hopping from Aparri to Zamboanga and Cotabato, visiting various student groups in these places.
After that he was invited by a churchmen’s fellowship in Fayette, Missouri to finish his B.A. in Central Methodist College in that town. Another twist of fate was responsible for this. While teaching part time in Gingoog Institute, he saw one day relief packages from the United States marked, “Packed with love from Fayette Christian Church.” The young Udarbe wrote to the minister of the church, Rev. James M. Hull, and they became close friends. This led to his being sponsored by Reverend Hull’s church for study in Fayette in 1952, and then later at Union Theological Seminary in New York in 1954, where he studied under some of the greatest theologians of the United States.
He returned in 1955 and taught biblical studies at Silliman where he was also director of field work for Divinity School students. In 1959 he went back to the United States to pursue doctorate studies at San Francisco Theological Seminary in San Anselmo, California, and finally got his Doctor of Theology in 1965. Soon upon his return, he was appointed dean of the Divinity School that same year. ###
Post Script: The rest is history, as they say. The former security guard and janitor of Silliman University many years later became its Acting President in 1971-72, when Silliman and the whole country was placed under Martial Law.
Crispin C. Maslog
Former Director
School of Journalism and Communication
