UP Diliman (UPD) bids farewell to three of its community members who passed away recently.
Brenda V. Fajardo, PhD passed away on Sept. 14, Wilhelmina DP. Lopez on Sept. 9, and Earl Stanley B. Fronda, PhD on Sept. 8.
Fajardo was professor emeritus at the Department of Art Studies (DAS) of the College of Arts and Letters (CAL), appointed at the 1205th meeting of the UP Board of Regents on 26 Jan. 2006.
According to a post from the CAL Facebook page, Fajardo was “the first chairperson of the DAS where she taught for almost four decades.” Her students, colleagues, and friends called her “Manang Diday” as a term of endearment.
The UP President’s Committee on Culture and the Arts, in its post at its Facebook page, acknowledged her “for her contributions to art education, Philippine theater, and extensive cultural work and advocacy. As an accomplished visual artist, her works resonate with commentaries and narratives of struggle of the common man, colonial past, the plight of women, and socio-political history.”
Lopez, a librarian, served at the UPD Main Library from 1969 to 1977 and became the head librarian of the Asian Institute of Tourism library from 1977 to 1994, according to the website of the Association of Special Libraries of the Philippines (ASLP), where she was president in 2010.
The ASLP website adds that Lopez worked as chief librarian at the Emilio Aguinaldo College (1995-1998) and head of the International Trade Resource Center at the Bureau of Export Trade Promotion, Department of Trade and Industry from 1998 until her retirement.
In the ASLP post, Lopez was described as “a guiding light, leading with unwavering dedication, visionary insight, and a compassionate spirit. Under her stewardship, ASLP not only achieved new milestones but also flourished in ways that will resonate for years to come.”
Meanwhile, Fronda was a professor at the Department of Philosophy (DPhilo) of the College of Social Sciences and Philosophy (CSSP) at the time of his passing.
According to a post from the CSSP’s Facebook page, Fronda was “the chairperson of the DPhilo from 1 Nov. 2008 to 31 Oct. 2011 and a part of its faculty since 1996.”
The same CSSP post states that Fronda specialized in “philosophy of religion and a renowned expert with the life and works of Austrian philosopher Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein, [whose] kind heart and caring soul are hidden only initially by his towering stature and partially permanent inquiring gaze. His screen-accurate impressions of scenes from Mario Puzo’s The Godfather spoke of the eccentric that eternally enjoyed life.”
UPD is forever grateful for their services and how they touched the lives of people they worked with.