Fred Cortel Blanco’s childhood was spent in a bamboo hut in the Philippines with no running water or electricity. He later devoted his life to helping hundreds of families, many of them Filipino immigrants like himself, buy a home in Hawaii.

Blanco died April 20 at his home in Manoa. He lived to be 102 — a long life spent in quiet dedication to helping others rise above their circumstances.

Blanco was 17 when he left his home in Alcala, Pangasinan province, to come to Hawaii in 1931. He first labored in the pineapple fields on Lanai, but soon found his way into working in the plantation store. A slender man with a sharp mind for numbers and business, Blanco managed several stores before moving to Oahu to work for the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers, where he met his future wife, Mary Esperanza Ayson.

Blanco came to real estate through his in-laws, who owned Pablo Realty. He worked for their company for a few years before starting a real estate business of his own. For four decades Blanco Realty Co. helped immigrants buy homes in Waipahu and Kalihi, handling the sometimes stressful, emotional process of home-buying with a quiet, calm nature.

“He never said anything bad about anybody,” son Joe Blanco said.

He was also known to forgo or cut back commissions in order to help families afford their homes. “I remember him coming home with stuff like a bar set. One time it was two Siamese cats. And we would ask, ‘What is this?’ and he’d say, ‘Commission,’” son Francis said.

Blanco became a Catholic so he could marry his wife. He became quite dedicated to the church, serving on church boards and becoming a leader in the Knights of Columbus. He was active in many civic groups but would conduct his own personal service missions, going back to his hometown in the Philippines to donate books and money to his old school. “Our encyclopedias would go to the Philippines,” Francis said.

The Blanco family lived in Pacific Heights in a neighborhood of small businessmen — the owners of Ito Florist and Yick Lung were neighbors. Later, when his three children were older, Blanco moved his family to a house in Manoa near the university. “He wanted there to be no excuse for us not to go to college,” Joe said. “We could walk to the university from our house.”

Sons Joe and Francis both graduated from the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Joe, a Realtor, served as executive assistant to Gov. Ben Cayetano. Francis manages the University of Hawaii Cancer Center facilities in Kakaako. Daughter Marie got her bachelor’s degree from the University of San Francisco and her master’s from American University; she worked for U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye for 34 years, rising to chief of staff of Inouye’s Washington, D.C., office.

In January, Marie came to visit from her home in Virginia. “I cooked for him. His appetite was good,” she said. But after that his health declined.

On Easter Sunday, Blanco met Francis’ newborn daughter, his youngest grandchild. A few days later Blanco quietly slipped away. Memorial services are set for tomorrow at Pius X Church in Manoa at 5:45 p.m.

“I can never match what my father did,” Francis said, looking at photos of water buffalo around a nipa hut in Alcala and pictures of all the barefoot schoolchildren gratefully greeting his father, their benefactor. “He went from nothing to something.”

Reach Lee Cataluna at 529-4315 or lcataluna@staradvertiser.com.