Maria Pastrana Castrence
Maria Pastrana Castrence (1927) endured major personal losses during WWII: the deaths of four family members and the destruction of her house, in which five of her completed research manuscripts went to ashes, including the Bibliography of Philippine Botany that she had worked on for several years. Overcoming these tragedies, Maria founded Filipinas College in Pasay, a suburb of Manila, in 1947, where she admitted several indigents and illiterate teenagers for free.