Tributes

Mercurial yet amenable to logic and reason, a stickler for detail but very aware of the big picture, a loyal supporter and fierce defender of his beloved Jamaica Labour Party but not without his personal opinion and the courage to express it, conservative on many issues yet possessed of an inventive imagination which saw possibilities and opportunities where others saw none.

In reflecting upon the life and work of the late Michael Manley the thought struck me that he is best described as a big man. Given the numerous meanings and interpretations that could be put to this characterization, I decided to explore as many of these meanings and interpretations as I could think of, to see to what extent this description was accurate.

On Saturday, July 1st the Bahamas buried one of its great sons, Archdeacon William Thompson, Rector of the St Agnes Parish Church in Nassau. Archdeacon Thompson was a Caribbean bred theologian with a deep understanding of Bahamian and Caribbean history. He was proud of being a graduate of Codrington College in Barbados.

I met Merceline Dahl, married later named Regis, when she studied medicine at the University of the West Indies, Mona. Immediately recognizing that my mother was a Dahl I invited Merceline to meet her. We then learned that Merceline’s father, George, was the brother of my mother’s father, Ernest Dahl. The Bahamian and the Jamaican Dahl’s are close relatives. Following this discovery, on every visit to Nassau on UWI business, I visited my grand uncle and therefore met and interacted with his elegant, dignified and poised wife, Mrs. Marguerite Dahl.