OF the three children born to Aniceto Faustino (b. April 17, 1872) and Candida Alcaraz (d. 1909), the first was Leopoldo, followed by Antonia and Jose, who all saw the first light of day in Calamba, Laguna province. The father, who came from Bacoor, Cavite, had finished the third year of latinidad at the Colegio de San Juan Letran, Manila. There is some indication that the family was somewhat well-off.

During his teens Faustino’s father moved to Calamba where he served as an acolyte to the parochial priest and where he met his future wife. Aniceto must have married Candida during his late teens, for Leopoldo was born on November 15, 1892. Aside from Attending to the family and household chores, Candida occupied her time as a seamstress. Aniceto Faustino had engaged in local politics during the American period and was elected municipal councilor of Calamba.

Leopoldo was a cheerful youngster and his company was sought by other boys of the neighborhood. He loved to narrate tales, tough he did not participate much in the folk games, his only favorite game being chess. Leopoldo learned his first letters from Soledad Rizal, one of the sisters of the national hero. He received his early formal schooling from the Calamba elementary school recently established in the town. He continued his secondary education at the Laguna High School, located in Santa the provincial capital, but for some reason or the other, he transferred to Pasay and finished high school thee, staying with an uncle named Conrado Alcaraz.

Leopoldo Faustino next enrolled in the University of the Philippines, the date being uncertain. It is also not known how long he stayed in the university, for sometime in 1912 he left for the U.S.A. without an undergraduate degree and without his father’s consent, though he had some 300 pesos in his pocket. As memento of his first years in the university, he contributed two short articles on folklore to the College Folio, the brainchild of a professor of English, Dean S. Fansler – attempts which recall his boyhood interest in local traditions.

In Columbus, Ohio, Leopoldo Faustino got employed in the Western Union Telegraph Co. as office messenger at 15 cents an hour, by working in the evening; then he served as delivery clerk at 45 dollars a month. He worked hard and had ambition; he took a civil service examination in Columbus and placed 5^th. Although the kind of examination cannot be determined, this eligibility facilitated his employment in the Ohio State Highway Department, while working on Sundays in the Western Union. When he had accumulated enough cash, he enrolled in the Ohio State University. He soon attained the rank of major in the cadet corps, which gave him 50 dollars a year. He attempted to combine in some efficient way working and getting an education, for he was always in need, though now and then financial help came from home – aunts and a grandfather transmitting money to him. In 1917 he was appointed assistant in the mining department of the College of Engineering, a job which gave him an extra income of 30 dollars a month. He received the degree of bachelor of engineering from that institution in 1917.

Faustino returned to Manila sometime in 1918. There is no record of the date of his having joined the Bureau of Science, though his first employment was as a junior assayer. He contributed several short sections to Mineral Resource of the Philippine Islands, 1917-1918, his first to technical writing. In the same year of his arrival in Manila he enlisted in the Philippine National Guard, a training contingent from which men were drawn for fighting in the European front during World War I. He was commissioned Ist lieutenant in the Engineers Corps, though he never set foot on European soil.

In 1920 Faustino was appointed lecturer in metallurgy University of the Philippines. In the Bureau of Science, he successively held the position of junior assayer, assistant geologist and chief geologist in the division of mines. In 1921 he was appointed by Governor General Wood to evaluate the coal mines claims of Uling- Naga, Cebu, between two large mining companies; his report served as basis for settling the conflicting claims.

In the same year, 1921, he was sent to the U.S.A. as a government pensionado. He enrolled at the Ohio State University, where he received a degree in mining engineering in 1921 and M.S.M.E. in 1922. Then he move to Stanford University, California, where he obtained his M.A. in 1922 and Ph D. in 1924, presenting Coral of the Philippines for a dissertation. He had as professors some of those who trained Herbert Hoover as mining engineer. Faustino meanwhile had his field training under an assistantship in the U.S. Geological Survey while schooling, 1921-24. It was in Washington, D.C., where he met the beauteous Paz Pamintuan belonging to a well known family of Angeles, Pampanga province, a friendship which flowered into romance.

In 1924 Faustino returned to the Philippines, becoming consulting mining engineer for Cebu Portland Co. in 1925. It was during this return home that he prepared two pioneering studies – "Geographic and Physiologic Description of the Philippine Islands" and "General Geology and Geologic History of the Philippine Islands" – for the Mineral Resources of the Philippine Islands, 1924-1925. In the same volume a historical article was contributed entitled "Philippine Mining from American Occupation to the Present. 1024, which though undocumented; must have been based on primary sources filled in his office, the division of mines of the Bureau of Science where he was chief geologist.

His services were once more needed by the department of geology, University of the Philippines, where he was appointed lecturer in geology 1926-1930. In 1926, Faustino was named one of the Philippine official delegates to the third Pacific Science congress held in Tokyo, October 30-November 11, during which occasion he read a number of significant papers. Among these were "The Mesozoic Formations of the Philippine Islands," Boundary of the Pliocene and Pleistocene Deposits in the Philippine Islands," and "History of the Strand Line of the Philippine Islands During the Pleistocene and Post-Pleistocene".

More significant works were forthcoming. In 1927 his Recent Madreporaria of the Philippine Islands"(1928) was published, the first of its kind that summarized the extent and nature of the known natural resources of the country. Another major contribution that appeared during the year was Summary of Philippine Marine and Fresh-Water Mollusks (1928, as Monograph 25 of the Bureau of Science, which opens with a dash of both the journalist and the scientist:

Then in 1929 Faustino was named member of the Philippine delegation to the Fourth Pacific Science Congress held in Java, May 16-25, during which assembly he presented two papers: "Living Coral Reefs of the Philippine Islands" and "Drilling on Limestone Reefs in Cebu, Philippine Islands. It was in this conference that he became a member of the International commission on Oceanography of the Pacific Science Association.

In 1930 Faustino was appointed acting director of the National Museum, and in the following year 1931, he represented the Philippines at the 1931 International Colonial and Overseas Exposition held at Paris, serving at the same time as technical director of exhibits. He lectured for a while at the University of Santo Tomas, in 1932. Then he was named chief of the National Museum division in 1933. In the succeeding year in 1934, he was chief of the division in mineral resources, Department of Agriculture and Commerce; then was appointed assistant director of the Bureau of Science in September 1934. Among minor positions that he filled was a membership in the Board of Examiners for Mining Engineers, 1927-30 and 1934.

Although Faustino has his training mainly in geology and mineralogy, in which fields he had substantial contributions, he developed his interest in coral and coral reef studies, to which he had a number of major works from his doctoral dissertation onwards. His attention branched out into other aspects of marine life such as in the study of shells, both sea and land. As a geologist Faustino took some interest in Philippine volcanoes, though his contributions are minor as are also his studies on underground water supplies for Manila. In palaeontology, his main contributions lay in his studies of fossil shells as demonstrated in several articles and especially in his Summary (1928).

Faustino was married to Dr. Paz Pamintuan (born in 11894) on February 15, 1926, by whom he had four children Carmen, Erlinda, Milagros; and Jose Luis. As his bride was a Roman Catholic, he had to forego Masonry before his marriage. In March 1935 Dr. Faustino went to the famous Mayo clinic in Minnesota and had himself examined; he was found suffering from cancer of the brain. He returned home in August 1935 and died of the disease on November 8, 1935. His remains were interred in the mausoleum of the Pamintuan family at Lo Loma, Manila.

In his middle and later years, Dr. Faustino manifested a love for the arts – painting and music – and he went to the opera. He did not smoke. Among boyhood friends were Vicente Lim and Leopoldo Uichanco, who later on became well know figures in their chosen fields. Jose Feliciano, though his junior, was both a friend and colleague. Both being geologists, now and then they teamed in their field work and investigations, the latter acting as one of his wedding sponsors in 1926.

The following societies admitted him as member: Sigma XI, Palaeontological Society of America, American Macalogical Union, Conchological Society of Great Britain and Ireland, Philippine Science society,. He was a charter member of the National Research Council of the Philippines, being active in its "Astronomy", "Geology" and "Oceanography" sections.

E. Arsenio Manuel

1. The oldest among three children of Anselmo Alcaraz, a native of Calamba, the next two being Engracia and Silvera. A. Alcaraz was a money lender and peddled mats, hats and baskets for a living. It is calculated that Aniceto Faustino married Candida sometime in 1890.
2. "Scientific Contributions" appended to this sketch.
3. Ibid
4. A mimeographed copy of this work used to be available in Dr. Jose M. Feliciano’s private collection.
5. For detailed listing, see "Scientific Contributions" at the end of this essay.
6. All these were published in Pan-Pacific Science Congress Proceedings, Third, Tokyo, volume 2 (1926). See "Scientific contributions"
7. See "Scientific Contributions"
8. Quoted from his "Introduction," P. 3
9. Both appeared in the fourth Pacific Science congress Proceedings, Java, volume 1 (1929).
10. See "Scientific Contributions,’
11. Ibid
12. Due to difficulties in locating them, only a couple of articles on the subject are listed in our "Scientific Contributions," which is the most exhaustive so far attempted.
13. Two articles on water supplies are listed in our "Bibliography".
14. See "Scientific Contributions".

1. 1911 "The Four Stones f Cavinti’, College Folio, v. 2, no. 2 (Oct. 1911)

11912), 175-177.

3. 1917-18 Mineral Production of the Philippine Islands in 1977 and 1918," in

8. "Petroleum and Residual Bitumens," ibid., 41-46.

9. 1923 "List of Mineral Land Concessions Granted and in Force to

10. 1924-25 "Geographic and Physiologic Description of the Philippine

1. Printed sources:

11. Unpublished materials:

3. Personal Information and opinion furnished by