May 20, 2015
In Memoriam: Fernando Morales ’18 embraced, and was embraced by, Providence College
Fernando D. Morales ’18 arrived at Providence College in September 2014 determined to wrest the most from his college experience.
With characteristic enthusiasm, he moved into St. Joseph Hall, signed up for clubs and organizations, found a job on campus, studied accountancy and photography, and proudly wore his Friars gear while cheering on PC teams, especially the men’s soccer team in the BIG EAST and NCAA tournaments.
Mary Ann Dailey ’05SCE & ’12G, payroll manager in financial services, met Fernando during freshman orientation and hired him as a student worker in her office. She was won over by his enthusiasm. He told her that he was more excited than anyone to enter college because he had delayed his entry for a year to undergo cancer treatment.
“I think it’s important for his family to know that the experience that he wanted so much, he got,” said Dailey. “I had so hoped we would have him here for four years, and that we would watch him go from freshman to senior, and to healthy and well.”
Fernando, the son of Albino and Esther M. (Soto) Morales of Norwood, Mass., died on Jan. 16, 2015, after a nearly four-year battle with bone cancer. He was 20.
His funeral Mass was celebrated on Jan. 21 in St. Timothy’s Church, Norwood. Buses provided by the Division of Student Affairs transported students to the funeral. The Friars Club provided an honor guard at the church. A memorial Mass also was celebrated in St. Dominic Chapel on March 22.
Making soccer connections
A soccer player at Norwood High School, Fernando was a big champion of PC sports, especially the men’s soccer team, which captured the BIG EAST title in fall 2014 for the first time in its history. After the team lost in overtime to UCLA in the NCAA semifinals, Fernando, who watched the game on TV, sent a note of condolence and support to the PC head coach, Craig Stewart.
At the start of the school year, Stewart had given Fernando a tour of the athletics department, and the two began keeping in touch by text message. Fernando would “offer great perspective and insight on various topics, usually soccer,” Stewart said. “He was very good with words.”
“He was a huge inspiration for me personally, and, in turn, the entire team,” said Stewart. “I would go as far as to attribute part of our success on the field this year to Fernando and the impact he had on me in the short time I knew him. He will be missed.”
Rev. Thomas P. McCreesh, O.P., associate professor of theology, was Fernando’s seminar professor in PC’s Development of Western Civilization Program. Whenever complications of his illness forced Fernando to miss class, he would always return, “very honestly and simply describe the situation of his illness, and then go on to inquire about what he needed to do and what he had to make up,” said Father McCreesh.
“He faced his illness with a quiet courage and never allowed it to interfere with his interest in continuing his work and getting back to school,” Father McCreesh said. “He certainly didn’t look for any pity. He was a marvelous young man who showed great promise. He was quite a courageous guy.”
When heading to church on the morning of Jan. 21, Father McCreesh suddenly decided to offer his Mass intention for Fernando, whom he had not seen that week as classes resumed after winter break. Later that day, Father McCreesh learned that as he prayed for his student, Fernando died.
“The world is not a wish-granting factory”
On Twitter, Fernando’s biography read simply, “The world is not a wish-granting factory,” echoing the line in John Green’s novel, The Fault in Our Stars, about young people with terminal cancer.
Fernando was a high school sophomore playing soccer and running track when he was diagnosed with cancer in March 2011. After nearly a year of chemotherapy and radiation, the cancer was found to be in remission, and he returned to school to complete his junior year with hopes of returning to the soccer field in the fall as a senior.
But according to an article about him in Paths of Progress, a publication of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, the cancer returned in October 2012. While Fernando couldn’t play, he was named soccer team captain and took his coach’s motto to heart: “Winning is the only option.”
He finished high school on time with the help of tutoring and independent study. At his graduation ceremony in May 2013, he was presented with a golden diploma, given to a student who overcomes adversity to complete his studies.
In addition to his parents, Fernando is survived by a sister, Isabel V. Morales of Norwood; his grandparents, Domingo and Victoria Morales of Costa Rica and Norma Ortiz and Elpidio Soto of Puerto Rico; and many aunts, uncles, and cousins.
Gifts in his memory may be made to the Jimmy Fund Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, 10 Brookline Place West, 6th floor, Brookline, MA 02445-7226.
— Vicki-Ann Downing
