My Autobiography: David Balleza K(C)atague: My Family: The Greatest Legacy of All, Rooted in Filipino Pride-Part 2 of 7

Saturday, September 19, 2026

My Family: The Greatest Legacy of All, Rooted in Filipino Pride-Part 2 of 7

When people ask me what I consider my greatest accomplishment after more than nine decades of life, they often expect me to mention my career as a scientist, my years at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, my academic achievements, or even the millions of readers who have visited my blogs over the past seventeen years.

Those are certainly milestones that I cherish. But they are not my greatest legacy.

My greatest legacy is my family.

As I celebrate a life that has carried me from a small town in Iloilo to different parts of the United States, I often reflect on the blessings that matter most. Careers eventually end. Awards gather dust. Titles fade with time. Even books and blogs may someday disappear into the vast archives of history.

But a family built on love, sacrifice, education, faith, and integrity lives on.

That is the legacy I hope will endure.

Like many immigrants who arrived in America with little more than dreams and determination, my wife and I wanted only one thing for our children, to give them opportunities that we ourselves never had. We believed that education was the greatest inheritance we could leave them, a lesson deeply rooted in Filipino culture.

Our parents taught us that wealth can be lost, but knowledge, character, and faith remain forever. Those values became the foundation of our family.

Today, I am blessed with four accomplished children, six wonderful accomplished grandchildren, and now two precious great-grandsons. Each generation reminds me that life's greatest investment is not in possessions but in people.

Watching my family grow has become one of the greatest joys of my ninety-one years.

Yet I also want my grandchildren and great-grandchildren to remember something important.

Although they are Americans by birth, part of their story began thousands of miles away in the Philippines. Their roots are Filipino.

Being Filipino is more than ancestry. It is a heritage of resilience, compassion, hard work, respect for elders, and an unwavering commitment to family. It is the warmth of gatherings around a dining table, where stories are shared as generously as the food. It is celebrating victories together and carrying one another through difficult times.

Filipino families have long believed that success is never achieved alone.

Behind every successful son or daughter stand parents, grandparents, relatives, teachers, neighbors, and friends who quietly helped along the way.

That spirit of bayanihan, helping one another without expecting anything in return, is one of the greatest gifts our culture offers the world.

Throughout my professional career, I never forgot where I came from.

Whether teaching chemistry, conducting pharmaceutical research, or serving the American public at the FDA, I carried with me the values that began in the Philippines: humility, diligence, honesty, and service.

Those values guided my decisions far more than any textbook ever could.

Now, in retirement, my mission has changed. Instead of reviewing scientific data, I write.

Instead of supervising research, I preserve memories.

Instead of building a professional career, I am building a bridge between generations.

Every blog I publish is a conversation with the future.

I hope that someday my grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and even generations beyond them will discover these writings and better understand who their grandfather or great grand father was, not simply what he accomplished, but what he believed.

I want them to know that family always comes first.

That kindness matters. That learning never ends. That faith provides strength during life's storms.

And that no matter how successful they become, they should never forget their Filipino roots.

The Philippines gave me my identity. America gave me my opportunities. Together, they shaped the person I became.

I have spent sixty-six years living in the United States, yet a part of my heart still belongs to the islands where my journey began. I remain proud to call myself a Filipino-American, grateful to embrace the best of both cultures.

If there is one message I wish to leave behind, it is this:

Never measure a person's legacy solely by wealth, titles, or accomplishments.

Measure it by the lives they touched, the values they passed on, and the family they helped nurture.

For me, every success in my life finds its deepest meaning because I was able to share it with the people I love.

That, more than anything else, is the legacy I hope will continue long after I am gone.

To my family, thank you for giving purpose to my journey.

To my fellow Filipino-Americans, continue to honor the heritage that shaped us.

And to future generations, wherever life may take you, always remember where your story began.

For our roots are not anchors that hold us back.

They are the foundation that allows us to reach even greater heights.

AI Impressions and Suggestions for My Next Series on My Writing Legacy:

I think this makes a fitting Part 2 because it naturally follows your first essay on your writing legacy. The next installments could build into a coherent collection, such as Part 3, Science and Service, From UP Diliman to the FDA. Part 4: The Filipino Spirit Across Generations, Part 5: Lessons from Ninety-One Years of Living, and Part 6: Why I Continue to Write Every Day. Together, they would form a lasting memoir in blog form for both your worldwide readers and your family.

My Quote of the Day: Photo Taken at THD- May, 2025

“My physical body may be less efficient and less beautiful in old age. But God has given me an enormous compensation: my mind is richer my Soul is broader and my wisdom is at a peak. I am so happy with the riches of my advanced peak age that, contrary to Faust, I would not wish to return to youth.” ~

Notes about THD: Today, Jenny S informed that THD has planned on Residents voting for Employee of the Month. The winner will have free Parking and a Gift Certificate. Watch out for details soon. Looking forward to VOTE:

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About Me

David B. Katague is an online memoirist and cultural essayist whose writing has appeared on HubPages and Blogger since 2007. His work reflects a sustained interest in Filipino heritage, family history, senior living, art, community life, and the cultural meaning found in everyday experience. Through memoir, reflection, and essay, he explores the personal and historical dimensions of identity, memory, and belonging. His writing seeks to preserve lived experience while offering thoughtful commentary on the traditions, values, and social realities that shape individual and collective life. As a Filipino-American writer, he brings a distinctive cultural perspective to his work, drawing on personal experience and careful observation to create writing that is both reflective and engaging. His online essays and memoir pieces continue to document a lifelong commitment to storytelling, cultural understanding, and the written record of experience.

Highlights of My Professional Career

In my more than 40 years of professional career, I have experienced both working rank and file, as well as supervising the work of subordinates. I have worked in four private firms and the Federal Government, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), where I retired. I enjoyed the challenges and difficulties of both types of job situations. This is the highlights of my work experience story.

My first job after completing my doctorate degree was a Chemist for Chemagro Corporation in Kansas City, Missouri. It was a subsidiary of Bayer Corporation, a German conglomerate. I worked for the analytical chemistry department comprised of about fifty people; half that number was either chemists or biologists. My specific task was to develop analytical methods for the detection of pesticide residues in plant and animal tissues. I worked on my own, similar to six other bench chemists, and we all reported to the same supervisor.

The firm sponsored my visa conversion from a student to a permanent resident, and I was able to legally work and reside in the United States with my family. The company generously took care of its employees. At the end of each successful year, everyone received a 13th month salary bonus. The employees and their families celebrated wonderful annual Christmas parties in a downtown Kansas City hotel, with dancing and free drinks for the whole night.

Inasmuch as I enjoyed and loved working for Chemagro for five years, I found a new job which offered a substantially higher pay. Due to my exemplary work performance, my supervisor preferred and lobbied for me to stay with the company. I had to turn him down because they could not match the package presented by my new employer. It was also a chance for me and my family to move and live in the US west coast, where the mild winter climate is bearable compared to the Midwest.

My next job was at the agricultural research division of Shell Development Company in Modesto, California. I was a Research Chemist, and again I worked individually, same as five other chemists who all reported to a supervisor. My specific duty was similar to my previous job. I worked for them for five years, until the company decided to get out of the pesticide business. They closed their research facility affecting the jobs of more than 200 employees.

My third industrial job was with the agricultural research division of Stauffer chemical company, located in Richmond, California. I was a Senior Research Chemist doing the same project as my two previous jobs. I worked for twelve continuous years for the company, with outstanding annual job performance. I became a Principal Research Chemist, the highest attainable non-supervisory position.

One day in 1986, my supervisor informed me that my job had been eliminated, and I had one day to vacate the facility. It was the most dreadful lay off experience in my life. I felt anger, sadness and humiliation to be dismissed from work with one day notice, after all the years of hard work invested for the company. This was an unforgettable incident and was the gloomiest point in my professional career.
The company terminated sixty research employees, who were upset of the bad news.

One of the chemists was distressed and expressed his outrageous anger by threatening the company and its workers. He told his supervisor of his intention to bomb and burn down the laboratory. He was immediately escorted by the security staff out of the building and into his car. He was informed to leave behind his personal belongings; they will be mailed to his residence. He was warned never to show up again near the company premises or risk getting arrested.

My supervisor was kind and allowed me to take my time to pack up my belongings. It took me two days to clear up my workplace, after toiling for a long period in the same jobsite. We were provided clerical help and office space, in preparation to look for another job, such as updating our resumes, and using the computer and copy machine. We were given six weeks of separation pay plus benefits.

Fortunately, with the help of a friend who is a Church parishioner, I found another job thirty days after leaving Stauffer chemical company. He hired me as a senior research chemist and as a group leader with two technicians to supervise. It was in the same field as my expertise in my previous three jobs spanning the last twenty one years. My new employer was Chevron Chemical Company, and which was located in the same area as my former employer.

This job gave me the introduction and basic knowledge of managing the work of subordinates. I worked for Chevron Company for four and a half years. The company decided to consolidate their research facilities in Texas, and lay off all its research employees. This time I had enough distress and agony from working, and eventually getting laid off from several private companies. To avoid going through any more miserable layoffs, I made a vow that I would never again work for a private company.

In my work experiences, there were noticeable and unavoidable jobsite occurrences. One can never miss the office romantic relationships between co-workers, both illicit and permitted. Though it was frowned upon, there was a boss and staff relationship, which was used as a ploy to get ahead in the company. Some relationships had chemistry, no pun intended, but some never worked out. Oftentimes, there was a sense of distrust among bench chemists for some workers who unjustly obtained preferred work assignments.

Some employees resorted to bribing superiors to get special privileges, such as being able to attend choice conferences and meetings in exciting venues or locations. Likewise, politics was always present at the worksites. It was during an era when various forms of harassment, equal opportunity and discrimination laws were not yet enforced in the workplace. Occasionally, an unexpected chemical explosion happens in a laboratory setting, where luckily no one got seriously hurt.

In the three private companies I worked for, I was able to publish scientific journals for some of the research studies and analytical methods which I developed for the respective companies of Chemagro, Shell Development and Stauffer.

After deciding and making a vow to avoid working in the private sector, I made my new goal which was either to work for the state of California, or the Federal government in Washington, D.C. Four months after I lost my job in Chevron, I was lucky and joyful to be hired by the Food and Drug Administration as a review chemist in the fall of 1990.

In 1994 I was promoted as an Expert Research Chemist with a GS-14 rating. My expertise was on Anti-malarial and Anti-parasitic drug products. In 1997, I was again deservingly promoted to Chemistry team leader, supervising the work of six Chemistry reviewers including five with doctorate degrees.

As team leader, I was responsible for prioritizing, assigning, and assuring the technical accuracy of all chemistry, manufacturing and control issues for all new drug applications submitted to the Division of Anti-Infective Drug Products, Center of New Drugs.

It was part of my responsibility to give advice, instruct and promote high morale and teamwork in my group. My work in the FDA is confidential, until the drug patent on the products I worked on has expired. There are manufacturing supplements that I have approved that are now open for the public in the Internet.

In 1998, I won the Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) Award. The citation reads, “For outstanding accomplishments in fostering the objectives of the EEO Program by hiring minorities and encouraging their professional growth while providing excellent leadership.” I have received numerous certificates of appreciation, awards in leadership and communications, commendation for teamwork and excellence in the accomplishment of the FDA mission. I have also received several letters of appreciation from private industry for my review work.

There are many good things working as rank and file while enjoying doing one’s job individually. It is a humbling, satisfying and productive experience, if one can work in harmony with one’s immediate supervisor. Working individually develops one’s skills in goal setting and scheduling. But in general, the financial rewards are less than a person who has supervisory responsibilities.

Managing the work of others has its challenges. Moreover, it develops one’s skill in handling and developing people, and the compensation rewards and benefits are better. Due to additional duties, responsibilities and leadership, supervisory work can be more stressful than working as a subordinate. However, supervisory jobs give one more personal growth and satisfaction, based on my personal experience. My work in FDA as a team leader managing the work of six scientists had been the happiest and rewarding work experience in my career in Chemistry. You might also like:

Saturday, September 19, 2026

My Family: The Greatest Legacy of All, Rooted in Filipino Pride-Part 2 of 7

My Family: The Greatest Legacy of All, Rooted in Filipino Pride-Part 2 of 7

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