He, his wife and children, brothers and sisters, and his late parents made me part of their family many years ago, an honor I shall cherish for the rest of my life. Tony and I became friends because we enjoyed discussing issues, agreed on many things, and liked our food and beverages while doing so. Though he was never my supervisor, over the years we worked together on reports to the Legislature, Labor Day picnics, Relay for Life fundraisers, college promotional campaigns, and many other things, as well as sharing a San Diego State University master’s program. For college fundraisers, he taught me how to chop up whole chickens and then bread and fry them in BIG woks and how to make 25 pounds of red rice in a 1944 USMC mess hall container. As far as I’m concerned, his red rice was, and remains, the standard by which ALL others are judged.
Tony always had high expectations of his friends, colleagues, and subordinates in whatever position he held, most notably president of Northern Marianas College, but never more than he expected from himself and was willing to give.
The CNMI is a poorer place for his absence, and I and others shall miss him greatly.
PHILIP SWETT
Newport, Oregon
