The University of Santo Tomas Faculty of Medicine and Surgery Silver Jubilarians Class 1998 will launch on Dec. 17 its coffee table book titled “Imbued with Unending Grace, a Tribute to 25 Years” at the Manila Marriott in Pasay City.
The book title is lifted from the final phrase of the UST Hymn composed by two Thomasian alumni in 1961 for the University’s 350th anniversary.
The book launch will be preceded by the Rector’s Night on Dec 15 and Thanksgiving Mass and Pistahan on Dec 16 at the nearly 22-hectare university’s Sampaloc campus, Gerald Alcid (overall chairman) and Catherine Lee Chong (event chairman), Alumni Homecoming Organizing Committee, announced.
UST Rector Rev. Fr. Richard Ang, O.P., in his message to the 200 plus jubilarians featured in the book and practicing here and abroad, said: “With the rest of the Thomasian community, I recognize the efforts and sacrifices you have endured to better the living conditions of our brothers and sisters suffering physical, mental and emotional ailments withstanding socio-economic and geographical barriers.”
The Rector from 1990 to 1998, during the jubilarians’ stay at the Faculty of Medicine, Rev. Fr. Rolando de la Rosa, O.P., himself said in his Foreword: “I hope that like me you will see yourself, not as a flickering candle, but a torch burning with love for UST, encouraging our fellow Thomasians to pursue greatness—greatness in purpose and achievement—for ourselves and our loved ones, for the country, and above all, for God.”
De la Rosa also led the University during its Quadricentennial celebration in 2011.
The 9”x12” book—exclusively distributed to the jubilarian community—was produced by an editorial board/team headed by Canada-based Hermione Mary Anne Atencio Cabie-Santos, editor-in-chief; Metro Manila-based Arsenio Blancia Gonzalez III, managing editor; Claudette Saratan Guzman-Mangahas, associate editor; with Paul Quiambao as principal photographer.
Cabie-Santos, based in Ontario, is an Integrative/Primary Care Physician and a Clinical Research Professional of the Society of Clinical Research Associates (SoCRA) in North America.
Gonzalez is chairman of the Department of Radiology, Ospital ng Makati, while Guzman-Mangahas, is a pulmonologist and chief training officer, Residency Training Program, Department of Internal Medicine, of Cardinal Santos Medical Center in San Juan City.
Production board coordinator is Norberto Eduardo Gonzales Jr., a radiologist-sonologist of Cardinal Santos Medical Center, Providence Hospital, and the Mandaluyong City Medical Center, while Quiambao is a Thomasian travel photographer and lensman behind UST’s “400 Shots to Immortality: Timeless Photographs of the University of Santo Tomas Towards its Neo-Centennial.”
The book, published by the UST Faculty of Medicine and Surgery Class 1998, is printed by Paragon Printing Corp. of Marikina City.