I would like to share my condolences to the Ando family for their loss of a great husband, father and grandfather.  I met Ernie working as an Industrial Arts teacher many years ago.  He was a patient mentor, friend and colleague. He was someone I could talk to at anytime and helped develop my career.  I will truly miss him and always appreciate his kindness  Love John Torres Jr.

Mr. Ando, as I will always remember him; was my architecture and mechanical drafting teacher at Oak Grove High School where I attended from 1981 to 1984. He was a very kind man with a lot of patience, and I would discover later, a large influence on my life.  Like a few others in his class that I had befriended, I was a bit of a handful. But he never gave up on me. In his constant efforts to direct my attention back to my assignments, I realized just how much I enjoyed architecture and while developing those skills I gained a confidence and a friend that I really needed during that time in my life. My respect for this one teacher far exceeded the respect that I had for anyone during my teenage life, and I want to say that we became friends. We shared in long conversations about his experiences being imprisoned at the Manzanar internment camp while he was a child, and his enlistment in the army as an adult. Mr. Ando even made special arrangements so I could become his “teachers’ aide” during an alternate class which really did not require the assistance of an aide. Perhaps his decision for this extra time was to keep my attention directed towards my learning, or so he could increase the life lessons that he was inadvertently sneaking in our frequent conversations. Although I completely botched mechanical drawing, it was during that additional time under his direction that I had refined my knowledge and my skills in architecture, eventually submitting my work to a private trade college in another state where I was accepted and received a partial scholarship after Mr. Ando had provided me a crucial reference. Coming from a one income home, that scholarship was a huge blessing. Although I did not choose a career in architecture, deciding later to pursue a career in personal protection and investigations, I carried much of what Mr. Ando had taught me to use later in my life, always remembering and referring back to the council of our long conversations and his implanted life lessons. Being my only mentor during that time in my life I revered Mr. Ando, and in later years, long after I had graduated and began to encounter real world experiences, I realized that the time that he had invested in me may have very well kept me moving along the topside of those early adulthood experiences that often suffer a young man’s life. My only regret associated with our relationship, is that I had not looked him up before he left us to tell him thank you; Mr. Ando, for wanting to make a difference in the lives of the youth; for the time that you invested to know and direct me, and for believing in me. Until we see each other once again, I am truly grateful!

Frank Estrella,
Director – Atlas Investigations,
San Jose, California