DUMAGUETE CITY, Negros Oriental, Philippines (PNA) — Silliman University (SU) in Dumaguete City, Negros Oriental, mourns the loss of literary icon, Dr. Edith Lopez-Tiempo, who passed away last Sunday, August 21 at the Silliman University Medical Center here. She was 91.

Dr. Tiempo was one of Silliman’s most famous faces and “her legacy an eternal flame, a permanent fixture in Silliman history,” noted SU president Dr. Ben Malayang III in a statement. “Memories of her heart-warming smile, soft-spoken personality, and the nurturing touch of her hands will forever spark the brilliance in both established and budding creative writers in the Philippines and beyond.”

Fondly called by many as “Mommy Edith,” Tiempo’s most remembered legacy is the Silliman National Writer’s Workshop, Asia’s longest-running writing workshop, which she founded in 1961 with her late husband, Dr. Edilberto K. Tiempo.

Said workshop, according to the SU president, “has built for the country a reservoir of poets, fictionists, storytellers, and creative writers. In the same breath, Dr. Tiempo has churned out dreamers whose love of literature continue to splash colorful inks on the way life has been for them and others. A good number of those whose journeys encountered a “Mom Edith” who held their hands somewhere along the crossroads are now among the country’s notable writers.”