nicanor-reyes – Wiki Philippines

Definition

Nicanor Reyes Sr. (born Nicanor Reyes Icasiano; January 2, 1894 – February 9, 1945) was a Filipino educator, the founder and first president of Far Eastern University (FEU) in Manila. Trained in commerce and accountancy — he earned a bachelor’s degree from New York University (1917), a master’s in business administration, and a doctorate in accountancy from Columbia University, recorded as the first such doctorate earned by a Filipino — he headed the Department of Economics of the University of the Philippines before opening his own school. (Wikipedia)

In 1928, while teaching at UP, Reyes founded the Institute of Accountancy in Manila, a three-year program designed to meet the minimum requirements for the certified public accountant examination; it became the Institute of Accounts, Business and Finance a year later and, in November 1933, fused with the older Far Eastern College to form Far Eastern University, with Reyes as founding president. He was killed along with members of his household by Japanese troops in the final days of the Battle of Manila on February 9, 1945, reportedly leaving his family a last instruction that became the university’s motto: “Be brave.” (FEU — The Story of FEU, Wikipedia, FEU — Be Brave)

Identities

Source Type	Identity
Wikipedia	Nicanor Reyes Sr.
Wikidata	Nicanor Reyes, Sr. (Q16204252)
DBpedia	Nicanor_Reyes_Sr.
ProductOntology	N/A
Wiktionary	N/A
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH)	N/A
MeSH	N/A
NCBI Taxonomy	N/A
AGROVOC	N/A
Google Scholar	Nicanor Reyes Far Eastern University founder Institute of Accountancy 1928 Battle of Manila 1945
ConceptNet	N/A
OpenCyc	N/A

Also Known As

Nicanor Reyes Icasiano (birth name)
Nicanor B. Reyes Sr.
Nicanor Baptista Reyes Sr.
Dr. Nicanor Reyes Sr.
Nick Reyes

Examples and Analogies

A ladder to the CPA exam: the Institute of Accountancy’s original three-year course was built like a ladder — each rung matched to the minimum requirements for sitting the certified public accountant examination, giving working Filipinos a direct professional route where none had been organized for them. (FEU — The Story of FEU)
A school grown by merger: FEU’s founding is less a single cornerstone than a river joining two streams — Reyes’s accounts-and-finance institute (1928) and the liberal-arts Far Eastern College (founded 1919), fused in November 1933 into a university. (FEU — The Story of FEU, Wikipedia — Far Eastern University)
“Be brave” as an institution’s motto: Reyes’s reported last words to his family, preserved by his daughter Lourdes Reyes Montinola in her account Breaking the Silence and adopted as the university’s commemorative watchword, compress a founder’s biography into a two-word inheritance. (FEU — Be Brave)

Usage Scenarios

1. Researching the History of Philippine Accountancy Education

Scholars of business education cite Reyes and the 1928 Institute of Accountancy as the organizing moment of Filipino professional accountancy training — a school built expressly around CPA examination requirements that grew into one of the country’s largest private universities. (FEU — The Story of FEU, Wikipedia — Far Eastern University)

2. Documenting Civilian Deaths in the 1945 Battle of Manila

Historians of the Manila massacre use the Reyes household’s fate — the founder, his wife, and their two youngest children killed at home on February 9, 1945, days after American forces entered the city — as a documented case among the war’s mass civilian casualties in Manila. (Wikipedia, FEU — Be Brave)

3. Studying University-Building and Campus Heritage

Urban and architectural historians work from the campus Reyes commissioned: the 1940 Nicanor Reyes Hall, the U-shaped building facing Quezon Boulevard designed by National Artist Pablo Antonio, anchors an Art Deco ensemble; the surrounding street, formerly Morayta, now carries his name. (Wikipedia — Far Eastern University)

4. Tracing Founding Families in Philippine Higher Education

Biographers track the Reyes family’s continuing stewardship — the university reopened in 1945 “bereft of its founding president,” and his eldest son, Dr. Nicanor Reyes Jr., later served as president (1970–1985), while the FEU–Nicanor Reyes Medical Foundation (1970) carries the name into Philippine medical education. (FEU — The Story of FEU, Wikipedia)

Strategies

Follow the university’s official history for the founding sequence — Institute of Accountancy (1928), Institute of Accounts, Business and Finance (1929), fusion with Far Eastern College into FEU (November 1933) — since popular retellings compress the dates or collapse the two founding institutions into one. (FEU — The Story of FEU)
Verify credentials against sources: Reyes’s verified UP title was head of the Department of Economics, and his verified degrees are the NYU and Columbia credentials above; claims that he was “the first Filipino CPA” or a UP college dean should be treated as unverified until documented. (Wikipedia, FEU — The Story of FEU)
For the circumstances of his death, prefer the family account preserved by the university — the afternoon of February 9, 1945, at the family residence, with the “Be brave” testimony — over undated or unsourced versions. (FEU — Be Brave)
Distinguish the founder’s biography from the university’s institutional history, which this site treats separately under Far Eastern University; cross-reference rather than duplicate. (Wikipedia — Far Eastern University)

Security and Safety Measures

Protecting the wartime record: because Reyes died in a mass-atrocity context in which records were destroyed — the university’s own facilities and files were wrecked during the Japanese occupation — archivists treat surviving family and university accounts as fragile primary evidence to be preserved and cited precisely. (FEU — The Story of FEU, FEU — Be Brave)
Heritage protection for the campus he built: the Pablo Antonio buildings on Nicanor Reyes Street, including the 1940 Nicanor Reyes Hall, are protected campus heritage whose conservation the university manages as a custodial responsibility. (Wikipedia — Far Eastern University)
Commemorative integrity: anniversaries and profiles should be checked against the documented dates — birth January 2, 1894; death February 9, 1945 — to keep the founder’s record accurate against repeated copying errors. (Wikipedia)

Historical Context

Nicanor Reyes Icasiano was born on January 2, 1894 in Trozo, Tondo, Manila, the son of civil engineer Abelardo Icasiano and Macaria Baptista Reyes-Icasiano. He took his A.B. at the University of the Philippines in 1915, a commercial science degree at New York University in 1917, and graduate degrees in business administration and accountancy at Columbia University — the latter recorded as the first doctorate in accountancy earned by a Filipino and the first of its kind awarded by Columbia. He returned to Manila and rose to head the Department of Economics at the University of the Philippines, where he taught with a circle of UP educators. (Wikipedia, FEU — The Story of FEU)

In 1928 he founded the Institute of Accountancy, whose three-year program met the minimum requirements for the CPA examination; renamed the Institute of Accounts, Business and Finance in 1929, it merged in November 1933 with Far Eastern College, a liberal arts school founded in 1919, to form Far Eastern University. Reyes served as FEU’s first president, built its early course offerings, and commissioned the architect Pablo Antonio — work that produced, among others, the 1940 Nicanor Reyes Hall. During the Japanese occupation the campus closed and was taken over for Japanese military use; the university’s official history records the grounds as the headquarters of the Japanese military police, the Kempeitai. (FEU — The Story of FEU, Wikipedia — Far Eastern University)

On February 9, 1945 — six days after American forces entered Manila and amid the massacres of the battle’s final month — Japanese troops killed Reyes and members of his household, including his wife Amparo and their two youngest children, at the family residence in the late afternoon. The university reopened later that same year, led by eminent educators and, in time, by his eldest son; the family is buried at Manila Memorial Park–Sucat. Reyes’s legacy is carried by the street renamed for him in Sampaloc, the FEU–Nicanor Reyes Medical Foundation established in 1970, FEU Diliman founded in 1994 for his birth centennial, and the motto his last words became. (Wikipedia, FEU — Be Brave, FEU — The Story of FEU)

Challenges and Controversies

Unverified Credential Claims

Popular profiles often style Reyes “the first Filipino certified public accountant” or “first CPA board topnotcher,” and sometimes call him dean of a UP college of business administration. Neither his Wikipedia biography nor the university’s official history makes the CPA-exam claim or records a deanship: his verified UP post was head of the Department of Economics, and his verified distinction is academic — the Columbia accountancy doctorate. Writers should use the documented titles and treat the CPA claims as unverified. (Wikipedia, FEU — The Story of FEU)

The Founding Date and the Co-Founder Question

FEU’s identity as a 1928 founding (the Institute of Accountancy) sits alongside the university’s legal formation by the November 1933 fusion with Far Eastern College — the university marks its foundation anniversaries from 1928 — and while FEU’s official narrative centers Reyes, other accounts credit Francisco T. Dalupan Sr. as a co-founder of the institute. The overlapping dates and the single-founder narrative are recurring points of clarification for historians of Philippine higher education. (FEU — The Story of FEU, Wikipedia — Far Eastern University)

Atrocity Documentation and Divergent Wartime Accounts

The precise circumstances of Reyes’s death — the date, February 9, 1945, is firm — reach the public chiefly through his daughter’s memoir-based account published by the university, while descriptions of the wartime campus differ even among standard sources (the university’s history records Kempeitai headquarters; other accounts describe use by Japanese army transport and prisoner-of-war units). As with much of the Battle of Manila’s civilian record, responsibility and detail rest on testimony compiled after catastrophic loss. (FEU — Be Brave, FEU — The Story of FEU, Wikipedia — Far Eastern University)

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Nicanor Reyes Sr.