Friday, January 12, 2007 Seares: Don Vicente By Pachico A. Seares News Sense
THERE'S this story that when Disney World was inaugurated, someone said, "It's too bad Walt Disney didn't see this."
Mike Vance, Disney Studios creative chief, said slowly, for emphasis, "He did see it. That's why it's here."
Visionaries are prophets, seers, or dreamers whose ideas flirt with idealism or fantasy. But "visionaries" also refers to gifted persons who look beyond their time and succeed in doing something hugely useful about what they see.
Vicente Gullas (1898-1970), founder and first president of the University of the Visayas (UV) in Cebu City, was a visionary whose ideas worked and still do.
A school that gives affordable education was new, even outrageous in 1919 when Don Vicente founded Visayan Institute. Now UV is haven for thousands of the poor who squeeze in college between work shifts.
Full, good life
Don Vicente's study-now-pay-later plan (SNPLP) was at first brushed off as appliance sales gimmick. But pessimists soon saw its genuine compassion and enduring benefit.
Legions of professionals today cite SNPLP as reason they're not hustling or scavenging. More than half a century after Don Vicente's concept, Government copied the program: a compelling homage to his vision.
Don Vicente lived a good, zestful, and creative life. His books The Art of Living Well and Deep Thinkers and Great Doers reveal, if you look closely, how he chased and caught his dreams.
