By Trina A. San Agustin
Variety News Staff

THREE long-time educators on Guam — Alvaro “Al” M. Abaday, Patricia Santos Sison, and Esther Taitano Underwood — will be inducted into the Guam Educators Hall of Fame on Sunday.
The Guam Chapter of the Phi Delta Kappa will hold the induction ceremony at the Nieves Flores Library in Hagatna at 2 p.m.
Sison was a school librarian for the Guam Public School System for close to 28 years, at Benavente Middle School, formerly Dededo Middle School.
She was the reason behind the construction of the middle school’s library. Sison told Variety that it was through funding from the 22nd Guam Legislature that the library was constructed. “I consider this accomplishment the toughest endeavor I have ever undertaken. I did it for the students of Dededo Middle School,” Sison said.
Sison is currently a member of the Guam Library Board, the Guam Library Association, the Guam Memorial Hospital’s Volunteer Association, and the Guam Women’s Club.
Abaday, another educator who will be inducted into the hall of fame, was a social studies teacher at John F. Kennedy High School. He was employed with GPSS for 34 years before he passed away a year ago.
He organized the mock trial program for the school system, and was also a finalist in the Guam Teacher of the Year award in 2001.
Underwood, the third inductee, was a teacher with GPSS for about 35 years and was a school principal for five years. Some educators today call her “one of the island’s pioneer teachers.”