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By Suzanne Francis Brown (UWI Museum Founding Curator and Honorary Research Fellow)
At the University of the West Indies, Sir Shridath Ramphal is best remembered as the institution’s fourth Chancellor, a role he played to full effect for the maximum allowable period of two seven-year terms. For part of that time, he was simultaneously Chancellor of the University of Guyana and the University of Warwick in the UK. Many changes to the structure of the UWI emerged from his Chancellor’s Commission report on The Regional University in the 1990s and Beyond.
A former foreign minister of his native Guyana, he served as Commonwealth Secretary General from 1975-1990, during which time he was an important leader in the fight against apartheid in South Africa. He served the Caribbean as Chief Negotiator on External Economic Relations and as Chairman of the Caribbean Commission that wrote the seminal report, A Time for Action in 1992. He served as President of the World Conservation Union and Special Adviser to the UN Conference on Environment and Development, and he mediated and facilitated across the world stage.
When he launched his memoir, A Global Life, at the UWI Mona, the University of the West Indies Museum highlighted elements of his story. Here, we reprise a panel on his role as Vice Chancellor.
On his first, quiet and unannounced visit to the UWI Museum, the Curator was out and he was taken around by a young student assistant, who later reported that the visitor told her he had often worn the original Chancellor’s gown on display! His sense of humour balanced his clear mind and gargantuan efforts at many levels.
May his soul rest in peace.
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