ForeverMissed
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His Life
August 18, 2016

Our dad was born in Manila, Philippines to Nieves and Pedro Ligaya. He is the youngest of four children. This is a collection of memories from family and friends, all who love him dearly. 

Josefino's childhood nickname was Pepito, which was shortened to Pito, and eventually evolved into Penoy. He excelled at school, making lots of friends along the way. He attended the pioneer MANILA SCIENCE HIGH SCHOOL which accepted mostly honor graduates of public elementary schools in Manila at that time.   We remember hearing his classmates saying that your dad “aced’ his math exams, while they were sweating it out.  

After HS graduation, he became a scholar at ATENEO, one of the leading private universities, to pursue a BS in Mathematics.  Then, when he graduated, Ateneo took him in as a Math professor - - reportedly one of the youngest Ateneo professors then. 

He then applied for and got a Fullbright-Hayes scholarship grant from  the Philippine-American Educational Foundation, which allowed him to go to the U.S.A. to attend University of Pennsylvania Wharton School of Business.   One condition of the grant is for the scholar to return to the Philippines - - Penoy decided, instead, to remain in the U.S., met and married your mom. 

In 1974 their first child, Joseph Adelbert, was born. They moved to the Washington DC area, and in 1980 their only daughter, Caroline Jane was born. In 1985, Jeffrey Martin completed the trio of children. He watched supported all three of us through school, with Albert graduating with a BS in Engineering from Virginia Tech, Caroline graduating with a BA in Speech Communication from Ithaca College, Jeffrey graduating with a BS in Engineering from Virginia Tech, too. And he's been supporting Jeffrey who is currently getting his Masters in Systems Engineering from Old Dominion University. 

While in northern Virginia, he worked as a Program Manager for MCI Worldcom, which turned into Concert. After leaving that job, he joined the stock market boom and became a trader. Eventually he retired from that, as many did. In more recent years, he has spent his time teaching English as a Second Language (ESL) and had a dedicated group he taught every Monday night. (Side note -- Caroline taught ESL for a brief time right out of college, taking in her dad's teaching footsteps!) 

My dad also joined Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) Toastmasters Club in 2002. He participated at contests at the club level and, when obtaining the first place, he represented the Club at the area level. He served as Club President; and in the spirit of a good Toastmaster he collaborated as a team member whenever his participation was required.  

At home, he supported all of his kids hobbies and activities, from toting Albert to all of his soccer games as a kid, helping him move to California, watching Doc for a time before Doc could go to CA too, and of course totally loving his new grandson Evan. He came to ALL of my choir concerts, and there were a LOT. And he traveled with Jeffrey to local and far half marathons. He loved to cook, and would often compare, share, and try to impove on our favorite recipes. And of course, we would all feast at dim sum at Marks Duck House so often that the entire staff knows us by name!

Besides always supporting our own hobbies, my dad also exposed me and my brothers to a much bigger world. Literally. Besides several trips to the Philippines, we also went to Paris, London, Cambodia, China, Thailand, Australia, and all over the United States coast to coast plus Hawaii. He also took us to watch our local basketball team, The Washington Wizards (my dad was an avid basketball lover!), the magical world of Cirque du Soliel (his favorite is Alegria, which is the first one we watched together), numerous plays at the Kennedy Center, National Theater, and so many more.  In fact, the last conversation we were having with him was which night to go see Wicked the Musical at Kennedy Center for Christmas, and if he could watch Zoey (Caroline and Adam's dog) for New Years! 

We were all surprised and deeply saddened by his sudden passing. He always spoke about how much more LIVING there is to do, so it's on us to continue to live that dream.