Literary icon Aida Rivera-Ford passed away at 99 years old, leaving behind an unmatched legacy in literature, just shy of her 100th birthday.
Born in Jolo, Sulu on January 22, 1926, Aida Rivera-Ford graduated cum laude from Silliman University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English. Rivera-ford was the first editor of the school publication Sands and Coral, widely considered one of Asia’s earliest student-led anthologies.
Growing her literary portfolio through collections and short stories, Rivera-Ford’s “The Chieftest Mourner” and “Love in the Cornhusks” remain staples in many Philippine literature courses and classes. As she rose through the ranks of the literary elite, Rivera-Ford received a Fulbright grant and earned her master’s degree in English at the University of Michigan, winning the prestigious Jules and Avery Hopwood Award for Fiction.
With her now award-winning career, Rivera-Ford sought to give back to the local literary scene, chairing Ateneo de Davao University’s Humanities Division from 1969 to 1980 and co-founding the Learning Center of the Arts (later renamed the Ford Academy of the Arts) in 1980—the first of many colleges of Fine Arts in Davao City and in Mindanao.
As a pillar of the literary community, Rivera-Ford received the Datu Bago Award in 1892, a high honor that the City of Davao bestows on a citizen who contributed to its development and prestige. She went on to continue creating waves nationally and internationally, helping establish the Davao Writers Guild in 1999, and was included in the 2000 Outstanding Intellectuals of the 20th Century by the Cambridge Biographical Centre. Her most recent book, Oyanguren – The Forgotten Founder of Davao, was published in 2010 and told the story of Don Jose Oyanguren—a Basque Espanol who she considered Davao City’s founder.
Aida Rivera-Ford’s life was a testament to the power of literature. We remember her vast contributions to the country’s literary landscape, and her beloved works that live on to this day.