Metro Manila (CNN Philippines) — Tiffany Grace Uy earned a general weighted average (GWA) of 1.004 to register the highest grade obtained in the history of the University of the Philippines (UP) post-World War II.
Uy broke the record previously held by Jun Gabriel Pelias, a BS Mathematics graduate who finished with a GWA of 1.016 in 2011.
Related: UP Biology student graduates with near-perfect average
But there is a man who surpassed them both, and his name is Exequiel Sunico Sevilla.
In an article written by Sevilla’s daughter for the Philippine Daily Inquirer, Sevilla graduated from U.P. as summa cum laude in 1927 with a bachelor’s degree in Commerce.
His GWA? A flat 1.0, a feat, according to Sevilla’s daughter, that has yet to be equalled.
After Sevilla’s time in UP, he was sent to the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor as a government scholar to take up a masters degree in actuarial mathematics.
When he came back to the Philippines, Sevilla served as actuary of the Office of the Insurance Commission before moving on to establish National Life Insurance Co. in Manila.
Then president Manuel L. Quezon appointed him as part of the first board of directors of the Government Services Insurance System (GSIS) in 1937, and in 1953, Sevilla co-founded the Philippine Actuarial Society to advance actuarial science in the country.
Sevilla also co-founded the Philippine Statistical Association in 1951 and later became the society’s president in 1957.
Apart from his professional work, Sevilla gave back to the academe by teaching at UP, Far Eastern University, and the University of the East.
Sevilla passed away at 81 years old in 1985.
