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Photo by Brett Stanley/The Advocate
Students and faculty attend a candlelight vigil Dec. 11 to honor part-time cosmetology instructor Alex Flores. Flores died Dec. 9 at age 55.
Cosmetology remembers instructor
The Advocate
Cosmetology students and faculty alike will remember Alex Flores as a positive and uplifting instructor.
“I remember him joking around and smiling,” cosmetology instructor Denise D’Angelo said. “He was a good friend, a colleague, a mentor.”
Flores, a part-time cosmetology instructor since 1999, died Dec. 9 at the age of 55. The official cause of death has not been determined.
“They (the Flores family) never had an autopsy done, but we’re fairly sure he died of a heart attack,” cosmetology instructor Juanita Loveland said.
D’Angelo, in an all-staff e-mail Dec. 12, said, “His heart decided it was time to stop, however, the exact cause of his death has not yet been disclosed to me.”
Flores’ death came as a shock to both colleagues and students.
“It was very sudden,” D’Angelo said. “I think we’re all pretty devastated.”
In remembrance of Flores, a candlelight vigil was held Dec. 11 outside the Cosmetology Department, with faculty, students and alumni of the program in attendance.
Chanelle Blanchard, a graduate of the program who helped organize the event, said it was “to show our love and support to his family and friends.”
“He was such an honorable man,” Blanchard said. “You could go to him for anything.”
Blanchard said the loss was particularly hard because the department is extremely close.
“We spend two years together,” she said. “It’s not like they’re a regular professor. They become like family.”
At the vigil, attendees held candles and discussed personal memories of Flores with each other, as well as addressing the group as a whole.
Judi Remsberg led the group in singing a few verses of “You Raise Me Up” because for her “it also typified Alex. He raised everybody up.”
Another alumnus, Joe McEE, said Flores’ teaching style was also memorable.
“He was always about not letting us getting overwhelmed with it all,” McEE said. “He loved teaching.”
When it comes to his cosmetology talents, Loveland called Flores a “hair-cutting, clipper-cutting specialist. He was so good at that.” While at MHCC, Flores taught hair-cutting. McEE said, “He would (just) see something in the hair.”
As far as health problems, Blanchard said, “All we know is that he was a diabetic.”
McEE said he thought Flores was in a lot of pain for a long time, but “you would never know it from looking at him.”
The vigil focused more on who Flores was as a person and how he would be remembered. Vigil attendee Nancy Ferguson said she would remember Flores as “warm and passionate and giving.”
“It’s so sad. I feel like it was a tremendous loss for everyone who knew him,” she said.
McEE added, “Nobody didn’t love Mr. Alex.”
A viewing was held at Mt. Scott Funeral Home on Dec. 16. The following day a service and viewing was held at Mt. Scott Funeral Home followed by a burial at the Willamette National Cemetery and a reception at the Veterans of Foreign Wars Hall.
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