Royal Morales

MSW ’56

Royal Morales, fondly known as “Uncle Roy,” was a premier social worker who made inestimable contributions to the Filipino and Asian Pacific Islander communities in Los Angeles and throughout California, and to social work nationally.

Morales was a social worker, community organizer and fierce activist of human and social services issues, particularly around at-risk youth, substance use, mental health, and equality issues for Filipino Americans and Asian Pacific Islanders. He was the program director for the Pacific Asian Alcohol Program (PAAP), under the auspices of Special Service for Groups (SSG) of Los Angeles, and served as director of the Asian American Community Mental Health Training Center of Los Angeles. In 1972, Morales founded the nonprofit Search to Involve Pilipino Americans (SIPA) to enhance the quality of life for Filipino Americans throughout Los Angeles County.

He was a popular faculty member of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) from 1983 to 1996, and in his lively classes Morales told stories, played music, led discussions on historical analysis and conducted his own Saturday field trips to Los Angeles’ Filipino Town. The tour typically started at the Filipino Christian Church, which his father helped establish, went on to the Filipino American Reading Room and Library and then proceeded downtown to Bunker Hill, where the local Filipino community flourished in the 1920s and ‘30s.

He was nationally recognized for his lectures on the Filipino American experience, Philippine-U.S. relations and history, alcohol-related issues, organizing communities and program development for human services.