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  Photo Courtesy of UCLA Asian American Studies Center Royal Morales, former professor of Asian American Studies died Jan. 23 of a heart attack. Morales, known to many as "Uncle Roy," was 68.

By Hemesh Patel

Daily Bruin Staff

His name was Royal Morales – but his students knew him as “Uncle Roy.”

The retired professor and prominent figure in the Pilipino community passed away Tuesday of a heart attack in his Gardena home.

“When he came here, he was an OG L.A. homeboy,” said Meg Malpaya Thornton, coordinator for student and community projects at the UCLA Asian American Center. “He took kids out of the ivory and into the streets.”

Morales was active in the Pilipino American community and founded the Search to Involve Pilipino Americans, an organization to address youth issues and concerns.

Former students of the UCLA professor from 1983 to 1996, remembered his unique teaching style.

“One time he was playing a Pilipino (flute-like) instrument, and the entire class of 150 students became quiet,” said Annalisa Enrile, a former student of Uncle Roy and graduate student at the School of Public Policy and Social Research

Enrile said his class was the only one she experienced where people actually came to listen, even though half of the information discussed was not on the exams.

Morales encouraged his students to do community service, and the field trips he took them on were so popular they needed buses to accommodate everyone, she said.

Other former students who knew him before taking his class began to see him in a different perspective.

“I took his class and it was kind of strange because I saw a different side of him,” said his daughter, Faith, a 1991 UCLA alumna. “He talked about sides of history he didn’t talk about at home.”

Faith recalls him talking about the Japanese occupation of the Philippines during World War II.

His family was put under house arrest, Faith said. He mentioned it at home but his daughter heard the true story for the first time when she took his class.

“He will be missed by more than just his immediate family,” Faith said.

Uncle Roy was a role model for Derek Mateo, a 1996 alumnus and current lecturer in Asian American studies. As a teacher, Mateo is following Uncle Roy’s lead and doesn’t want his students to refer to him as “professor.”

“I think its much more of a compliment to be called uncle than professor,” Mateo said. “Uncle Roy knew that he didn’t have to be so serious, he knew it was OK to laugh and to smile.”

In addition to UCLA, Morales taught at other campuses, including Cal State Los Angeles, Northridge and Cerritos Community College.

He also served as program director for the Pacific Asian Alcohol Program and was director of the Asian American Community Mental Health Training Center of Los Angeles.

A scholarship fund was also set up in his name, in 1996, after he retired from the university.

He was still active with SIPA during his last days. In fact, he stopped by the organization’s office one week before he died.

“On the Tuesday before he passed away, Uncle Roy really wanted to know if we would carry out his vision of having a Pilipino American Studies department at UCLA,” Enrile said.

“It was really weird because it was as if he was laying down the groundwork about what he wanted us to do,” she added.

Thornton said Morales went beyond the Pilipino community as he was one of the first social workers to help after the Watts Riots in the ’60s.

“He planted seeds, he nurtured them, and as they bore fruit we are beginning to see the results,” Thornton said.

Morales was born in 1932 in Los Angeles. During the Depression, his family took him back to the Philippines. He returned to Hawaii when he was 18, and eventually received a master’s degree in social work from USC.

Morales is survived by his wife, Annabelle, three daughters, Faith, Kathy and Vicky, and one grandchild, Raneka.

Pilipino student groups, alumni and faculty, will organize a candlelight vigil for Morales tonight from 6-9 p.m. at Westwood Plaza. For information on the Royal Morales Fund, contact Meg Malpaya Thornton at (310)825-1006.