By Howard Billy Bianan BA-ELS 4

Rev. Dr. William O. Valentine

February is the month of love because on February 14 we celebrate the Valentine’s Day. During this time we are also reminded of Rev. Dr. William O. Valentine the first Principal of Jaro Industrial School now known as Central Philippine University. He is an exemplar in serving both God and our fellow men, teaching the Bible and academics.

Born in 1862 in Spencer, New York, Rev. Valentine grew up in a farming and horse-breeding family. After enrolling in the normal course at the Pennsylvanian Mansfield Normal School, he began teaching for four years before enrolling at the Colgate Theological Seminary. He joined the American Baptist Foreign Mission Society after finishing his studies and was assigned to Burma (now Myanmar) in 1895, first to Rangoon and subsequently to Mandalay, where he was appointed the head of the Baptist Mission High School for Boys. He experienced severe sunstroke in his eighth year in Burma and left the country for medical attention. When he was receiving therapy, he met his wife, nurse Ina Jane Van Allen.

Following their wedding in 1903, the couple immediately moved to their new assignment in Iloilo City, Philippines, a few years after when the country was opened to Protestant American missions in 1898.

In December 1904 the Philippine Baptist Conference voted to establish two schools, an industrial school for boys and a bible school to train ministers and other Christian workers under the administration of Rev. Valentine.

The American Baptist Mission Union had received a grant from American industrialist and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller to begin educational work in the Philippines and the Philippine Baptist Conference voted in December 1904 to establish two schools, an industrial school for boys and a Bible school to train ministers and other Christian workers under the administration of Rev. Valentine.

The Jaro Industrial School, a free vocational boarding school for boys in Jaro, Iloilo City, opened its doors in the fall of 1905. The first batch was made up of 20 boys, each worked four hours a day to cover their tuition, board, and lodging costs and they spend four hours a day in the classroom.

“The original purpose of the school was to provide an opportunity for poor Filipino boys to receive a good Christian, industrial education by working their way through school. Actual work experience and earnest study of the Bible were the core of the curriculum.”

Mrs. Ina Jane Valentine taught various courses while caring for the three Valentine children born between 1904 and 1913 in Iloilo.

In honor and memory of Rev. William and Ina Valentine’s sacrifices and love, the CPU Board of Trustees named the three-story classroom building erected beside Valentine Hall the “New Valentine Hall.”

It is said that if you are in the service of your fellow being you are in the service of your God. We now treasure the fruits of their devotion and selfless service made long ago. It is now our responsibility to repay them, showing our gratitude through our words and actions towards others.