Editors’ Note: This article was first published in The Ateneo De Naga BLUE and GOLD, August 1952. We thank the ADNU library and archives office for sharing with us this material (content and images). Fr. James B. Reuter, S.J., (b. May 21, 1916, Elizabeth, New Jersey – d. December 31, 2013, Paranaque, Metro Manila) came to Ateneo de Naga during the school’s early years before he was assigned to Ateneo de Manila. Fr. Jim is remembered for his significant achievements in media communications (radio, TV and print) and theater arts as well as his key role in the People Power Revolution of 1986.
Fr. James B. Reuter, S.J. came to the Ateneo de Naga in 1948. This year, 1952, he is no longer with us. But his memory will always be with us. Four years he was with us and during those four years he became the friend of all. The students in the classroom, the actors on the stage, the varsity players on the court, the members of the glee club — all were his friends. He was smooth and intimate in his manner of speaking; he was always determined to do everything well; he was full of energy; he worked hard and he made others work hard; he had great talents; but over all this, he was simple and humble. And they we- I all liked him. It was therefore a crushing moment for all his many friends in the school, in the city and in the whole region when they heard the sad news that Fr. James B. Reuter was assigned to the Ateneo de Manila.
ONE OF US
This beloved Jesuit priest with blue eyes and a rollicking Irish humor came from faraway New Jersey, but truly and deservedly he is one of us. He came to the Philippines way back in 1938 as a young Jesuit scholastic. He studied for three years at the Sacred Heart Novitiate and then taught at the Ateneo de Manila. When the war came, he tasted Japanese hospitality at the concentration camp in Los Baños. (Fr. Maxcy, new student counsellor, was a fellow inmate.) After liberation, he sailed back to the States only to come right back as soon as he was ordained to the priesthood. Then it was that he came to the Ateneo de Naga. The best years of his life he has spent in the Philippines, and we feel that the very best of these years were those that were spent here in Naga.
THE BLUE AND GOLD
Fr. Reuter’s name is closely associated with the many things that make the Ateneo famous. One of these is our own Blue and Gold. He founded it, worked on it, sweated over it, worried over it, dreamed about it; all through every single line and every single picture of four glorious volumes. The Blue and Gold has received and still is receiving heaps and heaps of praise not only from the Bicol region but also from other parts of the Philippines and even from abroad; and all of it the present staff now gratefully and proudly lay at the feet of him who merited it all.
THE CATHEDRAL PLAYERS
And who has not heard of the Cathedral Players? It all began when Father, assigned to take charge of all Ateneo presentations at the Sunday Catholic Hour conducted in the town square, thought of putting on plays instead of sticking to the usual speeches, poems and songs. The play, he thought, was the thing to touch the hearts of the people. The first play presented was the immortal mystery play, “Everyman,” in plain, simple Bicol. It was an immediate success. It was the talk of the town. Soon letters came pouring in from the parish priests of different towns inviting the Cathedral Players to play at their own plazas. Fr. Reuter and the Players went – and soon “Everyman” was the talk of all Bicolandia. Then came “Money” and “If Mary Came to Naga” and “Jose Rizal” and “Good Morning Teacher” and “From the Ground Up” and “Baby’s Birthday” a series of one successful play after another.
When DZRB came to Naga it did not take long before the whole of Bicolandia was listening in to polished, dynamic radio plays: “A Star for Lilia,” “Second Fiddle,” “Stolen Symphony,” “We, the People,” “Moonlight,” and “Night Shift” were presentations that readily captured the imagination and enthusiasm of Bicol radio listeners.
Last summer the Cathedral Players went on their longest trip: down way down south to the peaceful town of Gubat, Sorsogon. Fr. del Rosario’s church was badly in need of repairs and to collect funds, the Players came and displayed their wares on a rickety stage set up inside the convento. The Players put on the Passion Play first, gripping every single heart in that convento. (At the climax, when the messenger steals in to tell the Blessed Mother that her Son was dead, the old women from the surrounding barrios were weeping unashamedly.) As a respite, “Sarong Banggui” and “The Little Yellow Dog” were presented next and the crowd that had wept during the Passion Play shook the ancient rafters of the old convento with their laughter and thundering applause.
On the long road homewards, everybody was happy and satisfied with another Catholic Action job well done. The applause was still ringing in their ears; the flush of sustained emotion still on their faces. They sang and joked and chattered merrily away, little knowing that this was to be their last assignment with Fr. Reuter…
Up in Manila, Fr. Reuter has organized another group of Cathedral Players. As usual, the work is taking up a great deal of his time, energy and devoted effort. But we are sure that close to his heart, and there to stay until his dying day, is this group, his own original group, of Cathedral Players, the boys and the girls with whom he shared so much toil and worries and heartaches and joys uncountable.
The Cathedral Players of Naga are carrying on nobly and successfully, hoping all the while with a strong stubborn hope (who knows?) that Fr. Reuter will return to Naga.
THE SCHOOL PLAYS
That was outside the school, at the town plazas, kiosks and conventos of every kind and make. In the school (that is, if you consider the Sta. Isabel auditorium and the Bichara Theatre as part of the Ateneo), there was another series of successful presentations: “The Run-Aways,” “Temptation,” “A Night in the Inn,” “Poor John,” “Marujita’s Party,” and others. Out of Sta. Isabel, the generous sisters suffered the thugs and gunmen of “Brother Sampaguita” to plaster their stage curtains and walls with the wax bullet heads from blank cartridges. On the Ateneo stage (soon to expand to a real gym-auditorium) there burst forth in all its glory the Broadway hit, “Green Pastures.” And biggest and “bestest” of them all, “Cyrano de Bergerac,” which wooed the hearts of hundreds and hundreds of people who came in droves to the Bichara Theatre on three successive nights.
A-1 VARSITY COACH
When Fr. Towers left for Woodstock, Fr. Reuter (without dropping any other of his many activities) took over as coach of both the college and high school varsity. And as usual, he did a fine job. Through sheer hard work, he whipped the boys into a power-packed, swift-playing, high-scoring champion team. In the last BACS meet, the high school team ran away with the trophy with the greatest of ease. The average score per game was 119 points. The same high school team, champion of the region, also won the right to go up to Manila and compete for the PAAF national secondary championship. Playing for the first time in the big city, the boys went right up to the semi-finals by swamping Silliman U. only to lose to the bigger and more experienced (the runner up in the series) FEU team. A champion team was fashioned from ordinary Naga material. How did he do it? Again, his usual formula: hard work, just plain, grueling, hard work.
THE MAN BEHIND
Every school is proud to have outstanding students and graduates. At the Ateneo, there is no lack of students and graduates that any school can well be proud of. There are eloquent speakers like Ramon Brillantes and Eusebio General; finished actors like Gregorio Consulta and Menandro Benavides, able to play as well on the stage as over the radio; accomplished writers like Jaime E. Dy-Liacco; star basketball players like Manny Olaguera, Joe Apolo, Manny Roco, Rafael Rapi, Moises Pardo. With these men, magnificent successes have not been wanting on the stage, on the playing fields, on the rostrum, over the radio. The Ateneo is proud of them all, but most of all is she proud of the man who contributed most to the success of these men and their deeds, the man who was behind the scenes, throwing gears, pushing knobs, and driving everybody else to work.
Always Busy. Fr. Reuter had one peculiar characteristic. He was always busy. He never seemed to stop working. And what was even more characteristic, he always loved his work. He put his whole soul into whatever he had to do and was never satisfied with anything less than perfect. And more: he was not only busy himself; he not only worked himself; he also made others work and that, very hard. Perfection he wanted in himself, yes; he also demanded it from others. Groaned Cogo Bichara: “All the lines of Cyrano in two short weeks!?? But Father, how can I possibly…?” And the firm answer shot back swiftly: “Come, come, Cogo. Two weeks is even more than enough. Just spend four hours every day on it and you will have the whole thing memorized cold in one week.” Gogo groaned some more, but to no avail. He groaned through two full weeks. He won the gold medal for being the best actor alright, but not after he had lost all of ten precious pounds.
SILK AND DYNAMITE
The perfectionist that he was, he expected perfection or at least conscientious effort on the part of all those who worked with him. But his mode of attack was varied. With the little girls of the Cathedral Players he was as soft as silk. “You forgot your script at home? Now look, Baby, you’re a nice little girl. You have a sweet voice and personality and a wonderful talent for acting. But you have to bring your script to rehearsals everytime. Get me, honey chile?” Whenever the girls came late for rehearsals (“Women just do not have any sense of time.”) he would give them a hurt look, talk to them sadly and disconsolately, as only he could do it, about the great need for and importance of coming to rehearsals on time.
With the men, however, he was dynamite. Greg Consulta came in one afternoon fifteen solid minutes late. He walked right like an explosion. “GREG!!! Plant this deep into that feeble mind of yours. When I say come at four, I mean four and not four-fifteen!”
And on the team, he imposed very rigid training rules. No smoking, no staying up late at night, good marks in all subjects, no loafing during practice, lap-running (twelve around the football field after a whole afternoon of scrimmage and drill). And anybody who felt like disagreeing even if it be just once, and even if it be the star of stars, was promptly and mercilessly pulled out of the team. Dynamite!
MYSTERY MAN
To many Fr. Reuter was a mystery man. They could never figure out why and how he never seemed to get tired, how with all his activities and all his classes – all filled to overflowing with worries of every kind and shape – he just went on as energetic as ever. Then he was so varied and variable: soft silk on the one side, yet explosive dynamite on the other. Then again, he had such a boyish appearance (see cover); and yet was such an eloquent speaker that whenever he spoke, he was in complete command of the tears and the laughter of his hearers. And then, once again and this most of all, no one could ever quite figure out how a man such as he, with talents so remarkable and so varied, with success dogging his footsteps wherever he went, could, at the same time be so simple, so unassuming, so humble.
A great man has come to Naga and has gone away again. We, who have known him and worked with him and shared with him all the labor and the disappointments and success of those four never-to-be-forgotten years, feel an emptiness in our hearts that can never be quite filled again. We thank God for the great favor of having known him, of having shared life with him; and while we hope that he would come back to Naga, we pray that blessings come down on him and on all his work.
IN MEMORIAM
The Jesuit Communications Foundation which Fr. James Reuter, SJ founded honors his memory with a debt of gratitude. It cited his role in championing the presence of the Jesuits and the Catholic Church in the Philippine mass media.