The Rotary Balita no. 709 (November 20, 1952)

Classification: Farming- Born: 21 October 1894 Binangonan, Rizal Died: 14 November 1952 Elected to Rotary: November 1936 Hilarion S. Silayan, who was fondly known as "Hilary" to Rotarians, was an early product of the Los Baños College of Agriculture, U.P. where he obtained his BS degree in Agriculture in 1917. His public career commenced immediately after his graduation when he was ap pointed Deputy Governor of Mindanao in 1917. In 1920, he went to the United States where he became Manager of the Copeland Rice Ranch, California, which gave him an opportunity to take graduate studies in the Stanford University and at the University of California. Returning to the Islands in 1925, he was taken in the government irrigation system and became Chief of the Agricultural Ex- tension Service in 1929. In 1936, he was appointed Director of the Bureau of Plant Industry, a position he held up to 1945. In 1948, he was especially ap- pointed by the President of the Philippines as Executive Secretary and Agricultural Consultant of the President's Action Committee on Social Amelioration (PACSA). Lately, he was head of the Philippine Rural Community Improvement Society which he promoted without let-up until death took him last Nov. 14, 1952 while presiding over a PRUCIS Conference at the Manila Hotel, when he lapsed into a coma from which he never recovered. Hilary gave his full measure of service, loyalty, and devotion to his chosen career. With unusual zeal and ardor, coupled with personal abilities and virtues, Hilary won for him the loyalty, respect, and admiration not only of his colleagues in the government but of the thousands of his associates in welfare and community service here and abroad. His leadership in agricultural movement which was as gentle as distinguished made him indispensably identified in all national movements on agriculture, rehabilitation, and welfare.