The boy who started a university

At 14, young Jave prodded his father to put up a high school.

ANGELES CITY—Condolences have streamed in the social networking site Facebook following the death of Javier Jesus Gomez Nepomuceno on Feb. 19 at 98.

Nepomuceno, nicknamed Jave, started what is now Holy Angel University (HAU) in Angeles City in Pampanga province. His family’s earlier ventures—an ice plant in 1921, an electric plant in 1923, a soft drinks factory in 1928, a subdivision in 1965 and Nepo Mart in 1968—were credited for helping transform Angeles into the first chartered city in Central Luzon.

In 1933, when he was 14, Jave pressed his father, Juan, to put up a high school that suited his standards. Jave had returned from studying at De La Salle College (DLSC) in Manila because he missed his large family (Juan and his wife, Teresa, had 10 children), but he found himself enrolled at Angeles Academy as high school freshman.

Jave’s desire to establish a Catholic high school posed a problem for Juan. Parish schools were offering only elementary education then, so Juan’s only recourse was for his son to study at Pampanga High School in San Fernando, 17 kilometers away and not a Catholic school.

A staunch Catholic, the elder Nepomuceno sought the help of the parish priest of Bacolor, Pedro Pablo Santos, for his high school project.

Santos founded St. Mary’s Academy in 1919 and in 1940, Ateneo de Naga.

Jave asked Ricardo Flores, a teacher who resigned from Angeles Academy, to pay his father a visit. Flores accepted the job as high school principal.

Nepomuceno at 89 —PHOTOS FROM THE NEPOMUCENO FAMILY and THE HAU CENTER FOR KAPAMPANGAN STUDIES

Pioneer

On June 5, 1933, and with 78 students, the Nepomucenos, Santos and Flores pioneered the academic institution that was to evolve into HAU. It was the first Catholic school in the Philippines to be founded and managed by lay persons.

Jave graduated from high school as valedictorian in 1936 and from college as valedictorian with an accountancy degree at DLSC in 1939, according to Robby Tantingco, who wrote HAU’s history book “Destiny and Destination.”

He placed second in the board exam for certified public accountants. He founded HAU’s College of Commerce in 1948 and taught at DLSC from 1951 to 1958. DLSC later received a scholarship fund from him in 1969.

Working with Ayalas

In 1953, Jave graduated cum laude from Ateneo Law School. He pursued a master’s degree of Laws at Philippine Law School. He caused a stir when he defied his thesis adviser, Jovito Salonga, to quote a Supreme Court case that was then still pending.

“When his thesis was published in the Ateneo Law Journal, the Supreme Court took a quote from it in its decision on the same case—the first time the Supreme Court quoted from the journal,” Tantingco said in his book.

The incident prompted Ayala Corp. to recruit Jave in 1958. He worked closely with Joseph McMicking, husband of Mercedes Zobel de Ayala, and became Ayala’s comptroller, vice president for finance and treasurer in 1968.

He served as a member of the board from 1974 until he retired in 1999 and was made the board’s “permanent guest.”

“I cannot think of anyone outside the family who has been as unselfish in his sharing and as dedicated to the Ayalas,” Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala II said.

HAU became the country’s first coed Catholic high school, which would later produce government officials, business leaders, trailblazers in the private sector, artists, religious persons and rebels.

Days before Jave died, the university received the Philippine Quality Award among higher education institutions accredited by the Philippine Accrediting Association of Schools, Colleges and Universities.

HAU flew the Philippine flag at half-staff and offered memorial Masses for him.