Next to Juan Medrano the oldest lay teacher was TERESO D. LARA of Imus, Cavite, who spent 43 of his 85 years teaching at La Salle on Taft Avenue. Bearing an elementary school teacher's certificate from the Philippine Normal College, he was accepted in 1925 by the Brothers to teach in elementary grades. Despite a full teaching load, he studied at National University for his B.S. in Education, and at Far Eastern University for his Llb. Before the war Lara had taken military training at the Camp Henry Allen in Baguio, and had he been a reserve officer of the Philippine Army he would have gone to fight in Bataan. He did the next best thing — he became a member of a guerilla unit in his home province of Cavite — and was caught and imprisoned by the Japanese. Lara took over from Brother Anthony the teaching of the Palmer method of writing among the students and with another Caviteno, Jose V. Giron, became Scoutmaster of a Boy Scout troop. He was the “spark-plug” of the scouting movement in the school, and was known to his students as “Pop” Lara. He was also in charge of the Reserve Officers Training Corps. He taught mathematics, history, English and Tagalog. His boys — Antonio (HS ‘50), Ricardo (BSC ‘54), Rogelio (HS ‘65), Nicanor (HS ‘67) and Gil (Lia “74) – all graduated from La Salle. After his retirement he went to the United States, where he resided for several years until his death in San Jose, California, on December 14, 1982.