Providential Endowment

Cecilio N. Navarro Jr. knew he had big shoes to fill growing up in the Philippines.

His father had managed to become a schoolteacher and post Exchange manager at Clark Air Force Base even though he only had a sixth-grade education.

After his father died, he drew on his faith and landed a job at the Army and Air Force Exchange Service, which is a retailer located on bases worldwide. He spent thirty-nine years at the Exchange, representing employees who faced termination and even running for union president.

The author was one of the first Philippines Exchange employees to receive special immigrant status to come to the United States because of his exemplary work. While he had to feed a family of four on $4.25 an hour, he stayed upbeat as he chased success.

Join the author as he shares how a job at the Exchange led him from the Philippines to the United States, to Germany at the pinnacle of his career—where he witnessed the end of the Cold War and the fall of the Berlin Wall.