Maria Arceo Ulloa
Decades in education
Maria Arceo Ulloa (1898 – 1968), a teacher and school administrator, was born in the village of Hagåtña, Guam on 25 December 1898 to Vicente Iglesias Arceo and Antonia Manglona Camacho. She was the eldest of nine children. Ulloa began teaching in the public school system in Guam at the age of 16 in 1914 during Guam’s US Naval Era. She received her bachelor’s degree from the College of Guam following the end of World War II.
Ulloa influenced learning instruction at several Guam schools both as a teacher and a school administrator. She served as an elementary and high school teacher at the former Post Office School, George Washington High School, and the former Anigua School. She was also principal at the Leary, Belibic, MongMong, Dededo, Yigo and Tamuning schools.
While teaching, Maria met and married Manuel Federico Ulloa, a self-employed plumber, who later became a member of the Guam Legislature. Together they raised 14 children including Lucy Pearl, Wallace Lawrence, Paul Daniel, Evelyn Ruth, Elizabeth Ann, Abraham David, Esther Marie, Joseph Luke, Priscilla June, Beullah Lou, George Frederic, Jonathan Alvin, Vivian Winifred, and Alvin Jonathan. Manuel died on 3 June 1959.
Maria Arceo Ulloa was born a Catholic, but converted to the Seventh-Day Adventist faith in 1945 along with her husband, becoming the first SDA converts on island. Following her retirement, Maria Ulloa relocated to Talent, Oregon.
She died on 28 March 1968 at the age of 70 and was laid to rest at the SDA Cemetery in Ipan, Talo’fo’fo.
Dededo Elementary School, established in 1965, was renamed by law as Maria Arceo Ulloa Elementary School, better known as MA Ulloa elementary, in 1968. The renaming was to honor Ulloa who served as an educator for more than half a century in Guam’s northern schools, retiring as principal of the former Tamuning School.