Noted educator, former BBC journalist Trevor Fitz-henley dies
WELL known educator, author and former British Broadcasting Corporation journalist, Trevor Fitz-henley is dead.
He passed away yesterday, two days after his 77th birthday. Fitz-henley, who died in hospital, had been battling illness for a few weeks.
Fitz-henley was the second to last surviving member of a group of siblings who became renowned across Jamaica for their work in the education sector, which included the establishment of the popular Fitz-henley Business College and the Fitz-henley Commercial School.
In the late 1990s Fitz-henley served as principal of Brown’s Town Community College in St Ann, which provides tertiary educational services to students in northern and western Jamaica.
He was later tasked to start an extension of the college called the Wesley Campus where he was campus administrator for approximately 20 years. He developed a reputation for achieving a near 100 per cent pass rate among students in the subjects he also taught at the institution during his nearly two decades in charge.
Fitz-henley is a former senior manager at North American Life
Assurance Company (NALACO) which was led by one of his mentors and iconic Jamaican businessman, R Danny Williams, and which later became known as Life of Jamaica (LOJ) and now Sagicor Jamaica Limited.
Between 1966 and 1968 Fitz-henley was The Gleaner’s university correspondent. Over the years, Fitz-henley had worked with JIS TV and was a news Analyst at RJR, now Radio Jamaica. He served as an in-house interviewer at BBC Bush House in London in the United Kingdom and was among the first black voices on BBC Radio. In recent years he was a guest host of IRIE FM’S Running African programme which focuses on the struggle for social justice and issues concerning people of African descent across the world.
After retiring from the education sector around 2005, in subsequent years Fitz-henley served at the Office of the Public Defender in Jamaica, a commission of Parliament that is mandated to hear complaints by Jamaicans who feel wronged by public sector agencies and is responsible for advocating on their behalf.
Fitz-henley was also a consultant to the Smithsonian museum exhibition in Washington DC and is a published author.
His publications include Boy In A Landscape, Lara’s Theme: Cricket’s Magic Music’, which consists of a foreword by Sir Hilary Beckles and introduction by Jeffrey Dujon, and Getting ‘DEM’ Out: West Indies Cricket Dominance 1976-1994, which features an introduction by cricket fanatic and former Jamaica prime minister, the late Michael Manley.
Fitz-henley is a past student of The
University of the West Indies, where he obtained a masters in economics, and the Inner Temple in the UK where he studied law. He also attended Carleton University in Canada and the renowned Kingston College in Jamaica.
Fitz-henley, who was born in St Andrew on July 15, 1944, is known for, along with his widow, continuing a family tradition of and initially leading the way in homeschooling his children who passed up to 12 Caribbean Examination Council (CXC) exams between ages 11 and 13 years old.
He is survived by widow Alecia and six children, including award-winning broadcast journalist and Nationwide Radio co-host, Abka Fitz-henley and attorney-at-law, Yakum Fitz-henley.
He’s also survived by a host of nephews and nieces including another Kingston College old boy, dermatologist Michael Fitz-henley; Jamaica Medical Doctors Association President Mindi Fitz-henley; former St Catherine South Central Member of Parliament, Sharon Hay-webster;,and popular Us/jamaican Hollywood Actress Parisa Fitz-henley who recently starred as Megan Markle in the Lifetime movie, Harry & Meghan: A Royal Romance.