Roger Santicruz
71, San Jose
Distance could not stop Roger Santicruz from taking care of his family. When his niece in Las Vegas texted the family group chat that she had car trouble, he was ready to book a f light from San Jose to help her.
“He [ would drop] everything he’s doing when one of us needed help,” his oldest son, Lester, said.
As a former ground crew worker for American Airlines, Santicruz f lew for free. He and his wife of 51 years, Tessie, traveled together frequently. They saw the pope in Vatican City and visited Australia and Singapore.
The couple had just returned to their home in San Jose from the Philippines, with a layover in Japan, in late February. After a week, Santicruz came down with a cough and was admitted to Good Samaritan Hospital in San Jose. A day later, he tested positive for the coronavirus. He died in the hospital March 25, two weeks after being admitted. He was 71.
Born in Manila in 1948, Santicruz, along with Tessie and their three children, immigrated to the United States in 1976, settling first in Santa Maria, where he found a job at the Columbia Records pressing plant. After two years, the family relocated to the Bay Area, where he worked at airports in San Jose and San Francisco.
One of his best friends, Ed Fadrilan, met Santicruz while coaching a local basketball league that his grandkids were in. Over their 15 years of friendship, Santicruz would come over to Fadrilan’s house to watch boxer Manny Pacquiao’s championship fights, and Fadrilan would attend Santicruz’s golden wedding anniversary celebration.
“He was very down to earth,” Fadrilan said. “You didn’t have to impress him.”
Santicruz had a green thumb and would spend his free time working on backyard projects and gardening. After he died, Fadrilan planted a succulent in his name. “As long as that succulent keeps growing, then I have a continued memory of Roger,” Fadrilan said.
Santicruz is survived by his wife; children Lester, Eileen and Oliver; five grandchildren; and friends and family all over the world.