By Digoy Fernandez

(*Ramon V del Rosario Sr)

When I heard that Ramon del Rosario Sr, or Tito Monching as I have known him all my life, or RVR for the purposes of this blog, passed away, I truly felt a sense of sadness. First, RVR and Tita Millie were long-time family friends of my late parents. Second, my parents and their friends had many shared experiences both professionally and in their subsequent exploits in the field of civic action. Third, I had originally planned on digging up many of the gems of their past activities through personal talks with them, hoping to dredge as many of these memories as I could. Unfortunately, many in this pioneer band of friends passed away one by one even as I contemplated the project.

When the intrepid band of young and idealistic men gathered to form what would become the Manila Junior Chamber of Commerce (now known as the Manila Jaycees) sometime in late 1947, RVR was elected as the charter president for the following year. Then, they chartered several other chapters all over the Philippines, and RVR became a natural choice for charter president also of the incipient national organization. But this band did not rest on their laurels because they then set forth to organize Jaycee chapters all over Asia, including the Tokyo Jaycees and the Japan Junior Chamber! By this time, the Philippine group caught the attention of the international organization and the 5th JCI World Congress was slated for Manila in 1950. In that meeting, RVR was elected as the President of JCI, the first Asian to be accorded such an honor.

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