International Alumni Association was formed. At every association meeting, like a broken record, each one told and retold stories of bygone days with the Dean, how he was such a dynamic motivator, how he was the best mentor they had ever had. “With him algebra became very interesting,” one said. “Dean Quirino was an inspiration,” another said. I was not one of the fortunate students who had him as a teacher. I shifted my course after a couple of weeks from engi- neering to commerce. I hated math and algebra with a passion. I feared math and algebra more than I feared a snake hiding in a rice paddy waiting to inject its venom into your legs. I took math only because it was a requirement, and I barely passed it. I realized I could not be an accountant without passing math. The Dean took a chance on me right after graduation by pro- moting me to the accountant position. The promotion made me feel like a kite flying high in the sky, but after a few days I came crashing down to the ground when the magnitude of the responsibilities of a chief accountant dawned on me. I started to second-guess. Did I get the job because I was a fresh gradu- ate and did not ask for a high-caliber accountant fee? Or maybe, just maybe, did he truly believe in my abilities as he did with Frankie Aquino, Ped Condeno, Gil Dia and Rene Tolentino, and many more of my contemporaries? I tried to talk to him about this, but he abruptly cut me off. “All I ask of you, as I did with all the others, is for you to do your best,” he said. It was the Dean’s gift of motivating others—that given the chance, all are winners. His belief in me and my fellow TIP alumni made all the difference. Here are their stories.
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