[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 14]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 19345]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




  COMMEMORATING THE 60TH ANNIVERSARY OF FATHER DUENAS MEMORIAL SCHOOL

                                  _____
                                 

                       HON. MADELEINE Z. BORDALLO

                                of guam

                    in the house of representatives

                      Tuesday, September 16, 2008

  Ms. BORDALLO, Madam Speaker, I rise today to congratulate the 
students, administrators, staff and alumni of Father Duenas Memorial 
School, FDMS, as they celebrate the school's 60th anniversary. Founded 
in 1948, by Bishop Apollinaris Baumgartner, OFM Cap., as an institution 
to prepare young men for the priesthood, FDMS has evolved to a 4 year 
college preparatory high school rooted in the Catholic faith.
  FDMS was named to honor the memory of Father Jesus Baza Duenas, the 
second Chamorro to be ordained a Catholic priest. Father Duenas was 
beheaded by Imperial Japanese military forces on July 11, 1944, only 10 
days before the liberation of Guam. The school was built in Tai, 
Mangilao, in the area where Father Duenas and his cousin Edward were 
executed. The school mascot, a ``friar'', is significant as the school 
has been managed and staffed over the years by religious orders, 
namely, the Stigmatines, Capuchins, and Marist Brothers.
  FDMS has a strong record of academic excellence and athletic 
achievement. Many of its alumni have excelled and succeeded in their 
pursuit of higher education in post secondary institutions, including 
the military service academies and numerous colleges and universities. 
From its humble beginnings as a five room seminary, the school had 
grown in size with more classrooms, science laboratories and the 
recently opened Phoenix Center that serves as a multipurpose complex 
housing a gym, an auditorium, weight training room, and additional 
classrooms. The Phoenix Center is also used as a venue to host other 
performances and civic events for the island community.
  Through the years Father Duenas Memorial School has produced 
distinguished alumni which include leaders in government and the 
business community, members of the clergy, servicemen in the United 
States Armed Services, judges, lawyers, doctors, dentists, and 
educators. Father Duenas Memorial School's most distinguished graduate 
is the Metropolitan Archbishop Anthony Sablan Apuron, DD, OFM Cap.
  It is the heritage and testament of its students, their parents, 
administration, faculty staff, and alumni that continue to show the 
character and success of Father Duenas Memorial School. As the school 
celebrates its 60 Years of Excellence, I congratulate Archbishop 
Anthony Apuron, Father Duenas Memorial School Principal, Mr. Willaim 
Roth, the faculty and staff, and the various orders and laypeople who 
have educated many of Guam's outstanding young men since October 1, 
1948. May Father Duenas Memorial School enjoy many more years of 
service to our community.

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