DR. Eufracio “Tino” A. Jesus, a prominent professional and civic leader, who had served Davao City as dentist, outstanding educator, Rotarian, Free Mason and JCI senator during the last 65 years, passed away December 27 due to aneurysm. He was 80.
Tino’s spouse Ester; children Arsenio Emmanuel, Joann Carol and Dominic, their respective espouses; and grandchildren; and other surviving relatives thanked all those who have in countless ways, condoled and comforted them in their hour of bereavement.
Tino, who also served as dean of the College of Dentistry of the Davao Medical School Foundation, was well-loved and admired for his warmth, passion for service and consistency in altruistic efforts.
He impressed those who knew him up close because of his perseverance and ability to rise from the extreme challenges in life.
In a recent article, writer Ricardo Jimenez Jr. likened Tino to the mythical Phoenix bird that rises from its ashes to fly again because of his “remarkable ability to pick up the pieces and move on from devastation, professional and family tragedies.”
Tino and wife Ester, a nurse he met during a medical-dental mission in the city’s depressed communities, were devastated when the first dental clinic that they established and their residence nearby were reduced to ashes during the great fire in 1964 which gobbled up the city’s central business district bounded by Pichon Ave., Legaspi St., Rizal St. and Bolton St.“We lost everything except the clothes on our back, ”Tino recalled.
In 1988, their second son John, 24, an electronics and communications engineer, died in a vehicular accident. Six months later, youngest son Michael, 17, a 4th year high school student, succumbed to leukemia.
At the age 25, Dr. de Jesus first came to the city in 1957, two years after topping the 1955 board exams. A native of Aparri, the northernmost town of Cagayan where he was born on May 14, 1931, he “cried every night” for missing his birthplace. He recalled carrying “one suit case and one mosquito net” upon arrival in this city “on the invitation of a classmate (Dr. Carlos Chan, now in the USA) from the University of the East.
