In March 1971, upon my return to Galveston, Texas, on the S S Carrier Dove a Waterman ship I decided to retire. I can show a chief steward discharge from Waterman ships dated in 1929 and 1971. I also have the unique distinction of holding discharges as Commissary Consultant. No other American seaman holds that Coast Guard discharge.

     Shortly before I quit my union work, an incident happened that touched me deeply. My work with the union included visiting sick members in the hospital. While I was visiting one of our members who was critically ill, his aged parents both on Social Security came to see him. I learned they had to borrow the funds to make the trip to see their son. This seaman was receiving only a dollar a day, instead of the usual eight dollars, because he did not have one day sea time in the last six months. The man died and his parents were hard put to give him a decent burial, so I passed the hat in the union hall. We collected $24.00. The parents had to wire their relatives for help and buried their son in the cheapest grave they could find.

     I asked a cemetery salesman for Houston's biggest cemetery chain to help me buy a plot for needy seamen families. When the salesman, a Mason, found out what I wanted it for, he told the president of the firm. I was offered a large plot in a prominent location of the cemetery, near the cemetery gate facing the chapel. A ten foot tall marble monument inscribed with the union logo, "Brotherhood of the Sea", and Kipling's poem dedicated to seamen was erected. It is located in the Forest Park Cemetery in Houston and has perpetual care. It was donated to members of the SIU and now has five SIU men interred in it.

     When Shirley and I were transferred to Houston (She also worked for the SIU as secretary from 1956 to 1965 when she was taken ill.), we invested our savings in apartment rentals. When I retired in 1971, we owned our home, eight apartments and large equities in four other apartments.

     We decided to move back to Alabama because three of our four children, all married with children of their own, lived there. So we sold all our properties in Houston, thinking that with my union pension, which at the time was more than my Social Security pension, would be sufficient for our living expenses. My union pension was eventually outstripped by my Social Security pension. In spite of that, inflation compelled me to reinvest in other apartment rentals to which I devote part of my retirement time.

Felipe Morales Reyes

Shirley and Felipe Morales Reyes

     Retirement offered me the opportunity to become active in civic, community and fraternal affairs. I was invited to become a member of a Rotary Club and served as President in 1976. In 1973, shortly after joining, I was made chairman of the World Community Service Committee. I learned that there was a Rotary Club in my home of Taal and I proposed to my club that as our project we help the Taal Lemery Rotary Club establish libraries in the towns of Lemery and Taal. We collected books to send and made several shipments, one of which weighed over a ton. It consisted of 45 boxes of books and 15 boxes of clothes. The libraries are the only English libraries in the area and attract many residents, especially students.

     In 1975, I was sponsored by my Rotary Club to walk in the March of Dimes Walk a thon. I completed the 18 mile walk which sparked other members of the club to join me. This is now a community project of our club.

     About the same time the library projects were started, I learned that a modest sum of American dollars, when converted to Philippine pesos, would help deserving students attend college. I established a fund for this purpose. The fund was administered by the Taal Lemery Rotary Club. My first two students graduated in March of 1977. One of them, Miss Marico Mendoza, graduated Summa Cum Laude. Both graduates became gainfully employed and were able to help their large families. This scholarship program lasted for several years with two students being chosen each year by the Taal club.

     Because of my culinary background, I am able to donate my talents as a cook to political groups, institutions, fraternities, churches, and friends. I have barbecued and cooked for as many as a thousand people. There is not a month that passes that I do not cook for a group, especially for my Masonic fraternity. One Fourth of July, I barbecued for the patients and their families and the staff of the Rotary Rehabilitation Clinic of Mobile. It has always been my joy to see others happy and enjoying themselves. This joy is multiplied a hundred fold when the source of that happiness is the fruit of my talents and experience.

     While I was president of the local chapter of the American Association of Retired Persons, our chapter instituted the annual Azalea Trail tour for residents of the eleven local nursing homes. We took six busloads of folks for a ride to see the azaleas in bloom. My second term, we gave presents to the those residents who were without relatives.

     I was honored by the National Sojourners, a Masonic organization of active and retired commissioned officers of the armed services, as a hero of '76. This organization to which I belong is dedicated to the preservation of the American institutions and ideals and to the defense of our country and its constitution.

     I was elected the first President of the Filipino American Association of Greater Mobile.