RC Makati Confers Icon Awards on 3 Noted Educators
Fr. James Reuter, S. J., Fr. Pierre Tritz, S. J., and Josette Biyo, Ph. D., were honored by the Rotary Club of Makati last June 6, during its Yearend Awards Night at the Blue Leaf Pavilion at the Bonifacio Global City in Taguig.
This was announced by RC Makati President Pepito Bengzon who said that the three awardees were chosen by the Club’s National Awards for Community Service (NACS), a search for outstanding personalities who have made a name and done the most in a given field.
This year, the search committee trained the spotlight on distinguished achievers in the field of education and gave its nod to two Jesuits and a La Sallian, all icons in their respective areas of expertise. The Icon Awardees:
Fr. James Reuter, 90 years old, an American Jesuit priest who came to the Philippines in 1948 at the age of 30 and spent the next 60 years in the country, investing time, knowledge, and energy to share his expertise in communications, theatre arts and broadcasting with three generations of Filipino students, teachers and community workers.
Fr. Pierre Tritz, a Jesuit who is a naturalized Filipino from France, has been in the country since 1950. Now 94, Fr. Tritz has devoted 58 years of his life to raising funds for scholarship programs for deserving Filipino youth.
Dr. Josette Biyo, director of the Philippine Science High School in Western Visayas, earned her masters and doctoral degrees in Science from De La Salle University-Manila. Hers is the singular distinction of being the only Filipino with a planet named after her—Planet Biyo—after she won the Intel Excellence Teaching Award in the U.S. in 2002, besting some 4,000 other teachers from all over the world.
NACS is chaired by PRID Paing Hechanova, who conceptualized and initiated the project in the seventies. With PRID Paing in the U.S. for his annual health checkup and for the RI Convention in Los Angeles, vice-chairman PP Joe Alejandro presided over the awards ceremony. The other members of the NACS Committee are DGN Sid Garcia, PP Conrad Marty, PP Roland Young, Toffy Concepcion, Peter Coyuito, Manny Javelosa and Francis Macatulad.
Fr. Reuter, Fr. Tritz and Dr. Biyo each received P75,000 from the Club.
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