Gloria Maria Federigan

Gloria was born in Manila, Philippines, on December 20, 1942, but spent her teen years in Balanga, Bataan Province. She was the daughter of the late Gloria de los Reyes and Pedro Ponce Talastas. In addition to her parents, she was predeceased by her older brother Hermenegildo, her nephew Eugene Paul, and granddaughter Hannah Joy.

In her lifetime, Gloria was loved, cherished, and respected by all who knew her. She was an accomplished portrait and still-life artist; a pianist; a baker and a rated chef, with a talent learned and savored from Cordon Bleu in Paris; a rare-books and Filipiniana collector; and a journalist, writer, and columnist for the Manila Mail, the erstwhile newspaper covering the National Capital Region.

Gloria was an accredited Certified Public Accountant upon passing a national examination held a few months after obtaining a Bachelor’s degree from the Far Eastern University in Manila. In the United States, she continued her quest for professional work at the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, part of the World Bank Group, in Washington, D.C. In between her jobs at the External Debt Division, Gloria obtained her MBA from the George Washington University, near her area of work.

Gloria’s tenure at the World Bank involved twice-a-year missions to several member countries in Latin and South America, Africa, Eastern Europe, and Asia, where, as a member of a group of specialists, she examined and audited the paying capacities of the affected countries. She retired from the World Bank after 30 years.

Gloria continued her quest for travel, along with her also-retired husband, by landing a job with United Airlines at Washington Dulles Airport. Her position as reservations specialist lasted until her mandatory retirement age of 65.

Gloria is survived by her husband of 54 years Roberto (Bobby); her three children: daughter Marya Gloria (Minette), son Robert Peter and wife Judith, and son Bret Joseph; her two grandchildren Jacqueline Reyna and Katharine (Parker); her siblings: sister Rosa Lourdes Medina and husband Jovan, Sister Eusebia of the Religious of the Sacred Heart, her brother Maximino and wife Merle, and her brother Eugenio and wife Caridad (Charet); and her many beloved nieces and nephews. Celesté Glo. The Deepest of Love