Sean C. Morgan
Juan Agunoy Ulep, 84, will be remembered as a generous, intelligent and fiercely patriotic man who lived a life that was difficult at times and colorful, while spending countless hours working on behalf of others.
Ulep died on Feb. 1 at Samaritan Regional Medical Center in Corvallis following a brief illness.
He was the oldest of five boys raised in Pitt-land, Laguna Province, the Philippines, south of Manila. He helped in the family business and participated in the resistance against the Japanese occupation there during World War II as an underage member of the Philippines Army.
After leaving the Army, he worked as a labor contractor in Guam. He saved enough money to move to the mainland. He landed in Portland in 1951 and then went to the Los Angeles area where he completed high school. He earned a degree in political science from the University of the Pacific in Stockton, Calif.
He planned to become a teacher but instead joined the U.S. Army in 1960. He spent 21 years in the Army, the first few as a combat infantry paratrooper serving at posts in Hawaii, the U.S. Mainland, Vietnam, Germany and the Philippines.
JUAN ULEP, left, and a colleague load cargo containers full of dental and school supplies to be sent to the Philippines.
After retiring from the Army as a sergeant first class in 1983, he enrolled at Western Oregon University. While there, he met Donna Desler of Sweet Home. They married two years later, and Ulep moved to Sweet Home.
The couple traveled the world, much of it in connection to their lifetime of service, which included supplying textbooks to the Philippines, Uganda and Honduras; building homes with Habitat for Humanity; and numerous projects through Rotary International beginning with Ulep’s service as a Rotary Fellow in the 1950s, including the drilling of clean water wells and provision of dental and medical supplies, textbooks and computers to impoverished countries.
“My main motivation in life is to be industrious and help others who cannot help themselves,” Ulep once told The New Era. “If it is good for the greatest number and honestly done, that’s my thing. If you dream it, and we can do it together, then we can all do it.”
“He was a very patriotic even though he was born in the Philippines,” said Mona Waibel. “He thought it was the greatest country in the world because he got to live here. Juan did a lot for this town.”
Waibel fondly recalled his barbecues.
“He grew almost everything they ate,” Waibel said. “He grew unbelievable gardens.”
After leaving the Army, Ulep joined the National Guard Reserve, which became the Oregon State Defense Force. He retired from the Defense Force in 2001 as a command sergeant major.
“He got to be the highest rank in sergeant you could get,” said Bob Waibel, who also was a member of the Oregon State Defense Force. He never wanted to be an officer. “We marched in a lot of Veterans Day parades, and we did military funerals also.”
“One time he says, sit down, I have questions,” said Rosemarie Allyn of the Veterans of Foreign Wars Auxiliary. She knew he was after something then, and she was right. She was soon helping find used textbooks to ship to the Philippines.
“We had fundraisers,” Allyn said. “He was always doing a fundraisers for one thing or another.”
In one, the Ulep and the VFW raised enough money to purchase a mile marker along the route of the Bataan Death March during World War II, something Ulep had witnessed. The fund-raising event provided extra funds to go toward future markers.
Ulep worked with the VFW to raise funds for the fresh water wells in the Philippines, Allyn said.
“He was always cooking, especially Filipino food,” Allyn said. “He was a good cook.”
He cooked salmon for the annual Banjorama organized by the Martin family off North River Road.
“He was always doing something,” Allyn said. “I just couldn’t believe he was gone.”
“He rarely missed a meeting,” Allyn said. “He always had good input that was good for the organization. Everyone, I think, is going to miss him.”
He told stories about his life, especially his younger days during World War II in the Philippines, Allyn said. He always had a different story, and she loved listening to them.
“I’d ask, ‘How are you today,’” Allyn said. “He would say, ‘I’m upright and shuffling.’”
“He is one of the mainstays down there (at the club),” said Jim Allyn. “Ask for an opinion, he was the first one to give it to you. He livened everything up. He was a wealth of information.”
Ulep, who was a lifetime member of the VFW, also carried a wealth of knowledge around in his head, Jim Allyn said. “If you disputed what he said, you didn’t say anything. You went and looked it up – and find out he was right.”
He would do things for people, but he often expected a return favor for whatever cause he was working on, Jim Allyn said.
“You mention dinner, he was the first one to supply whatever it was,” Jim Allyn said. He would bring 150 to 200 pounds of potatoes. He would buy turkeys and roasts to make sure something was available for any given occasion.
“He was a very proud man, I’ll tell you that,” said Marion Fritts, a longtime member and leader in the VFW. Ulep wore his uniform at most events.
“He was very intelligent,” Fritts said. “I think he was a very knowledgeable person, well read and very instrumental with the well-drilling and sending supplies. He used to help me with the funerals. I thought he was a very good man, and he did everything he could for people.”
“You cannot find a man of higher integrity or more dedicated to helping others,” said Dr. Larry Horton, retired School District 55 superintendent and a Rotary Club member.
“Juan Ulep through the Rotary Club donated a tremendous amount of time and energy to make sure he helped people, not only in this country but the Philippines, South America and Africa.’
Horton had known Ulep for about 10 years, he said. He was always working on those projects as well as projects in the community.
“He and his wife, Donna, were just fantastic examples for Milli (Horton’s wife) and I,” Horton said. “He’s going to be missed greatly by a tremendous number of people.”