‘An icon of integrity’
THE CURTAINS have fallen, finally, on a class act. For decades we demanded of him a display of excellence and dignity. We received a performance of abundance. We, in The UWI, bore witness to his wit, wisdom and reasonableness. Now we celebrate his lifelong display of goodness. We ask Almighty for mercy.
The return of Professor Edwin Jones to his ancestral home invokes the deepest reflections on his time with us. Some knew him as the unrelenting progressive scholar who looked beyond the quantitative data into the consciousness of all citizens. But within his contributions over the decades to nation-building was the impulse of the social democrat whose instinct was to empower the disenfranchised and marginalised. Others knew him as the humanist who loved entertaining friends and groundings with his brothers.
The University of the West Indies, not only here at the Mona mission, but everywhere it has spread and serves, was enriched by his many gifts – social compassion, personal humility, deep sense of caring, brilliance in the classroom, excellent published scholarship, public advocacy for social justice intertwined with economic growth, and lifelong professional commitment to the practice of efficient public administration. This rubric of public service was the well into which he sank his bucket. This was his personal professional practice, pursued with the passion and purpose of the prophet.
Professor was culturally prepared to be the consummate collegial man. Friends he made with effortless ease. His mind was moulded to promote and sustain his nation’s hospitality heritage. In this regard, he saw himself as a practising diplomat, always determined to showcase the goodness of Jamaicanness. The man, the land, and the social plan were strategically interwoven. Better must come, he would insist. Supporting the struggle was his refrain.
To this end he was always willing to promote robust intellectual discourse while mediating resulting ideological conflict. He defended and celebrated the value propositions embedded in the episteme of all sides, and always sought resolution [preferably over a game of dominoes] that promoted the humane and progressive path.
He was my respected brother and friend of 40 years. We met in 1979 at ‘G. Beck’. Fresh from graduate school in Britain, I chose his Mona as the place to plant. He had risen through the academic ranks and was being prepared by the Faculty of Social Sciences to inherit the leadership mantle from the great humanist scholar, Professor Gladstone Mills, who had mentored many in the values of academic conversation with civility.
Edwin emerged as the champion of the Mills manifesto. Wearing this crown across the Caribbean he taught, befriended and guided generations of students in the science of improving the public administration of the region. He was an icon of integrity for permanent secretaries from The Bahamas to Belize and Barbados. The theses of his lectures linger in the minds of many, there constituting a community of the caring and committed.
His is a rich and enduring legacy. Near 20 years after formal academic retirement, his voice resonates across The UWI-verse, and beyond. There was also the sacred place called Sabina Park, where he would linger from time to time marooned beyond the reach of academia. Happiness would consume his being; Michael running in, Viv walking out! Edwin would erupt and touch the sky. He was in heaven. Fly away home, brother, your work here is done.
The university community celebrates its seminal son, and coveys its condolences to his beloved Maria Jones, their families, and legions of loved ones.