From the Jesuit Ignaciophile blog BrittoniaFr. Felix Lobo, S.J. was born in Segovia, Spain, on 4 September 1926. He was very proud of his ancient city, which has such landmarks as the Roman Aqueduct, Alcazar Castle, and a magnificent cathedral. When I visited him there in 1990, he took me around to all these sights and treated me to Cordero asado estilo Segovia and finally took me to a real village bodega to taste the local wine.
He joined the Jesuits on 31 August 1943 and came to Japan in 1952 as a Jesuit missionary. Ordained a priest in 1959, he spent most of his life at Sophia University as a professor in the Spanish Language Department. After retirement, he kept himself busy writing language-learning materials and assisting in the Jesuit Parish of St. Ignatius.Although he was still active and healthy-looking, he moved of his own accord to the Loyola Retirement House in a suburb of Tokyo, about two years ago.........Besides being a priest, Felix was professionally a linguist, a psycholinguist. He did his doctoral studies at Georgetown University, Washington, D.C., and became a devoted student, friend, and admirer of Dr. Robert Lado. When he returned to Japan, he took an active part in boosting linguistic studies at Sophia University.
In cooperation with several Japanese colleagues, such as the well-known scholar Kindaiichi, he re-organized the linguistics curriculum and established the graduate school of linguistics. In the 1970s, he was also well-known as a Spanish teacher on Japanese Educational TV channel.He served for many years, sometimes even simultaneously, as the Head of the Spanish Language Department, Head of the Graduate School of Linguistics, Head of SOLIFIC [Sophia Linguistic Institute for International Communication], and Head of undergraduate section of Linguistics. He was also for many years one of the chief editors of Sophia Linguistica and several other linguistics-related and Spanish-related publications from Sophia.
Although Felix himself wrote few well-known treatises on linguistics, he was an able organizer, coordinator, stimulator and mentor. He was instrumental in bringing some of the most well-known linguists of the world, such as Chomsky, Halliday, Lado, and Crystal, to Sophia and several of his students are professors of linguistics in Japan.He also encouraged many Japanese colleagues and students to study overseas, and there are several Georgetown graduates in Japan, thanks to his PR for his alma mater. Felix was a cordial, warm, and affectionate person who elicited affection and love from the people he moved with. He was also very faithful to his friends and to those who did him favors, treating them to lavish luncheons and parties. He rarely forgot any good deed done to him, and he loved to praise each woman he met as 'the most beautiful and charming' and every man as 'the most talented in the world.' Perhaps the secret of his stable felicity was his ability to feel thankful all the time, attributing every good thing that happened to him as the result of God's and people's love for him.
Read the full post entitled, Professor Emeritus Felix Lobo Passes Away
2 comments:
I was a student of Father Felix Lobo's from 1978-1980 and the first foreigner to graduate from the Yotsuya Jochi Daigaku's Master's Program in Languages and Linquistics of which Prof. Lobo was the Dean.
He helped me many an evening after classes to perfect my Spanish for my thesis. We talked about life and religion and many topics during those evenings. He always joked with me that I could not graduate until I was baptized!
I felt a kindred spirit with him, as we were both expatriates living long term in Japan. I am from the USA but I had previously lived in Spain as well. We shared 3 languages: Spanish, English, and Japanese. Father Lobo was a wonderful mentor and human being.
I would like to contribute to the book that students are writing.
And, does anyone know how Sister Profesora Anunciata Ereza is? She was very close to Professor Lobo.
Please contact me at:
harriet_russell@alltel.net
or harriet@bhumiyoga.com
Thank you.
Harriet Russell
Graduate of Jochi Daigaku's Gengogaku Daigakuin Program 1980.
I only just now discovered this entry, and while I knew that dear Padre Lobo had pased away, I canot believe we are coming up to the first anniversary of his passing.
Padre Lobo was my Spanish instructor at Georgetown University, 1963/1964, but he became more - a spiritual adviser and good friend. It had been many years since we had last been in contact, something I regret al the more now.
People remember Padre Lobo's wonderful sense of humor. Here is one incident that stuck in my mind. In Spanish, hablar del rey de Roma (literally, to speak of the king of Rome) means "speak of the devil" in English.
There was a wiseguy in class, always getting into trouble, except in Padre Lobo's class; somehow he tamed him. Anyway, one day, as Padre Lobo was entering class, this fellow said, "Habla del rey de Roma!"
Padre Lobo stopped and slowly turned around and looked behind. He then faced the class, said, Non sum dignus, to which we all burst out in laughter and applause.
There was a lovely photograph of Padre Lobo in one of the Georgwtown "East Campus" yearbooks, between 1964 and 1967. I lost mine in a fire. It would be lovely to have - and post - Padre Lobo, a younger man still in his thirties.
RIP
Philip E Miller
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