Deogenes was searching for men like him … The 34th Grand Master of the Grand Lodge spent most of his life in Masonry. In 1933, he was initiated, passed, and raised in Pangasinan Lodge No.56; in 1938, he was elected from the floor as Master of his Lodge. Even when he was assigned to other cities by the Philippine National Bank (PNB), his employer, he kept up his Masonic activities, serving as Grand Lodge Inspector at Cebu, Iloilo, and Davao. In 1948, the Brethren, recognising his services and devotion to the Fraternity, elected him Junior Grand Warden. In the succeeding years, they chose him Senior Grand Warden and Deputy Grand Master. Then, in 1951, he became Grand Master. The man who had installed him Master of Pangasinan Lodge in 1938 was also the one who installed him as Grand Master: MW Conrado Benitez. In the Appendant Bodies, Cervantes was also active. He received the Scottish Rite Degrees – the 4th to the 32nd – in the Philippine Bodies in 1947. In 1951, he was invested with the rank and dignity of Knight Commander of the Court of Honor; in September 1956, he was coroneted IGH; and in 1965, was crowned SGIG. He also served in the various offices of the Supreme Council. He was Venerable Lt. Grand Commander when poor health forced him to resign as such in 1975. Cervantes was, furthermore, not only an Honorary Member of Amity Lodge No. 1 under the Grand Lodge of China, but also a member of Phoenix Chapter No. 2, Constantine Commandery No. 48 and Adelphic Council No. 7, Royal and Select Masters in New York City, and of Sampaguita Chapter No. 3, OES. In his chosen vocation, Cervantes started as a lowly employee in the PNB, Davao City, in 1918. Steadily, he rose in position until, in the 1930s, he was appointed Manager of the PNB Branch at Dagupan. Later, he was assigned to Lucena, Cabanatuan, Cebu, and Iloilo. While he was PNB Manager at Iloilo, the Second World War broke out. After hiding the Bank funds, amounting to P 1,729,000, from the Japanese, he joined the resistance forces as an undercover agent for Col. Macario Peralta. When the war ended Cervantes returned the money – a princely sum in those days – to the Philippine Government. His honesty was acclaimed both locally and abroad. This proof of integrity must have prompted Pres. Manuel Roxas to appoint him, in 1946, as Chairman and General Manager of the National Abaca and Other Fibers Corporation. After restoring the Corporation as a going concern, Cervantes was promoted by President Quirino as Technical Assistant to the PNB President. From 1952 to 1958, he was managing a sugar-sales operation in New York City. On his return to the Philippines, he became Manager of sugar centrals in Pampanga and Negros Occidental up to 1960. After that, he was Comptroller-Treasurer of the Trans. Philippines Investment Corporation until he retired in 1969. Additionally, Cervantes was President both of the Rotary Club, Iloilo and of the YMCA Board, Iloilo City. He was a member of the National Board of the YMCA, as well as of the Executive Committee of the World’s Alliance of YMCAs at Geneva in 1947. Besides being Chapter President of the Philippine National Red Cross, he served, too, as President of the Board of Trustees of Central Philippines University in Iloilo and Chairman of the Board of Central Iloilo Mission Hospital. Little did Carlos Cervantes and Carlota de los Santos, the parents of sixteen children, realise that the son, their second, born to them on March 29,1903 in Davao City would become a man of such wide-ranging interests. But, after studying in the public schools, the boy went on to dedicate himself to the study of Accounting and Bookkeeping and then to get married to Zamboanga City’s Rosario E. Holcomb, with whom he had eleven children. That man with variegated activities, Masonic and otherwise, went to meet the Giver of his talents on December 1, 1978 – at the age of 75 years.