FORMER Varsitarian editor in chief and publications adviser Vicente Rosales, Sr. passed away after suffering from cardiac arrest last June 18. He was 80.
His son Vicente “Bambie” Rosales, Jr., eldest of four children, said his father was pronounced dead at 11:34 p.m. in Cardinal Santos Medical Center in San Juan.
Rosales joined the Varsitarian as a news reporter in 1949 and was news editor from 1950 to 1952. He served as editor in chief from 1952 to 1953, and 1954 to 1955, but decided to step down to senior associate editor in 1953 to 1954, and 1955 to 1956 due to his heavy academic workload as a Medicine student.
Rosales graduated cum laude in Medicine and topped the licensure examination in 1956. He taught Medicine and Bioethics in UST and became president of the Philippine Medical Association from 1983 to 1984.
Bambie followed in his father’s footsteps in Medicine and writing, and became editor in chief of the Varsitarian from 1982 to 1984.
Father and son held the post of publications adviser, in 1962 to 1964 and 1995 to 1997, respectively.
The younger Rosales described his father as “disciplinarian yet very compassionate,” adding that his family did not encounter serious problems due to their unique sense of values.
“I do not know anybody who could deliver a lecture as eloquent as him,” Bambie said, who regarded his father as a “brilliant teacher.”
“I’m not going to miss the inspiration and the values because they are still and will always be with me,” Bambie added.
Piedad Guinto-Rosales, Rosales’ wife and youngest child of Manila’s war-time mayor Leon Guinto, said his husband was very understanding, patient, and intelligent.
“We were very good friends, and it’s a very good basis for a good relationship. We were good friends because we got together in a lot of University activities,” Guinto-Rosales told the Varsitarian.
Guinto, a former assistant dean of the Faculty of Arts and Letters, shared almost the same organizations with Rosales. They were both members of the defunct Aquinas Dramatic Guild, Central Board of Students, and the Varsitarian. Guinto-Rosales was a religion reporter.
Fr. Guillermo Telon, O.P., former regent of the College of Medicine, said Rosales was “a great man and a great friend.”
Telon led the Mass during Rosales’ wake in Guadalupe, Makati last June 21. With reports from Reden D. Madrid
