THINGS THAT MATTER

“My father gave me the greatest gift anyone could give another person, he believed in me.” (Jim Valvano)

 

“The most important thing in the world is family and love.” (John Wooden)

 

My father was born 113 years ago, in 1903, the year the Wright Brothers made their first, famous flight. And he died in his 90th year, after hoping to make a century, but not quite achieving it. He was the son of a dentist, Dr. Henry Fraser, after whom I was named, and his wife, Mary Anne Louise Mayers. His mother died when he was seven, and his father was then seriously ill, unable to work, for more than two years. He was raised, he always said, like an orphan on Worthing Beach, and his only schooling was primary school. His education ended at 14, but his love of reading made all the difference – rather like Andrew Carnegie.

 

He was strikingly handsome, a great swimmer (doing a lone 12 mile swim in 1927 from the Aquatic Pier to Speightstown) and apparently a great dancer in the days when dancing was not a mating ritual of choreo-athetotic and pelvic contortions, and was the star at dances. I inherited none of these gifts! And for all of his working life in St. John, as overseer at Lemon Arbour Factory (now Uplands) he had the reputation of being an impressive boxer and the strongest man in St. John. This must have discouraged anyone from trying to rob him, when he brought home cash in a brown attaché case every Friday afternoon to pay the weekly paid parish workers next morning!

 

He was appointed Parochial Treasurer almost on the day of my birth, June 25th, 1944. His office was created in the corner of the veranda of our modest rented home at Spooners, Four Roads, and the whole population of the parish trekked up our steps, past my brother and me pitching marbles, to license their cars, bicycles or donkey carts. As my mother’s post office was just 20 yards away, we knew the whole parish and everyone knew us. And to this day I will meet old folks in St. John who will tell me how my father would pay a license for them that they couldn’t afford.

 

His great gifts to us included the love of reading. His books and our mother’s school prizes were the gold stars to which we were directed, and we read many of the classics by the age of ten. His passion for reading and learning was infectious, and for good writing and speaking. When the Reader’s Digest arrived every month he tested himself on “It pays to increase your word power” and then passed the magazine to me. He was so happy when I scored more than him the first time! And since he believed I could win a Barbados Scholarship, that belief carried me through against the odds. I couldn’t let him down.

 

He taught us many things – the virtues of love and loyalty, respect, patience, honesty and hard work. He always said: “Don’t give up on what you’ve started.” But his greatest lesson was living his motto: “Love is service”. He lived to serve his family and the people of St. John.

 

My wife’s father – Lee Harford Skeete – was an even more remarkable man – as strong as an ox, yet a classical, mathematical and legal scholar, an income tax expert and a teacher of classics, a musician playing violin, piano and organ, impeccably skilled in clock repair, watch and car repair, school principal, legendary counsellor and mentor of many, grandmaster of the Masonic Lodge, and the recognised authority in all aspects of free masonry in Barbados. Phew!

 

A Philipian, his first school was St. Marks Boys’ School, under his father Mr. John Brathwaite Skeete, the principal. He entered the Boys’ Foundation School on a Second Grade scholarship and promptly won a First Grade scholarship to Harrison College, where he was known as the Iron Man for his strength, but won all the prizes there were to win! While at school, at age 15, he became an organist, and held the post of organist at St. Mark’s Church for five years! He proceeded to Codrington College on an Island scholarship, and graduated with Honours in classics and mathematics in 1932. 

 

While an acting lecturer at Codrington and the Rawle Institute, he read the course for the Diploma in Theology of Durham, but did not write the exam because “he did not feel he had the calling to be a priest”. He then read law and successfully wrote the Bachelor of Civil Law degree of Durham University in 1935!

 

In those days, a man of Lee Harford’s complexion could not get a teaching post at a major school in Barbados in spite of his brilliance, and he took a teaching post at the Antaigua Grammar School teaching mathematics, classics and games for two years. This was followed by a newly created post of Income Tax Commissioner for several years, until he moved to Montserrat as Principal of their grammar school and chief education “guru” in the island. After another stint in Antigua, playing multiple roles in the Income Tax Office, as Federal Treasurer of the Leeward Islands and even Comptroller of Customs for Antigua, he finally assumed the post of headmaster of the Boys’ Foundation School back home – and here he became a legend. 

 

Dubbed “The Boss”, he established a reputation for fairness. His pipe, his chuckle, his good humour and his generosity were iconic – he was loved, sought out for his advice, and there can be few head teachers in Barbados who can compare for the impact he had on a school as well as on the society, including his peers and his Masonic colleagues. His achievements of personally tutoring Foundation’s first Barbados Scholar, inspiring the school to their Inter School Sports victory, are still talked about. His retirement years at The Lodge School were equally enjoyable for Lodge and as Sir Alexander Hoyos said in his tribute to Lee Harford “He was the sage to whom we turned for advice on many questions”. 

 

However, the complications of diabetes and vascular disease were his undoing, and he had a long and painful illness, with one horrible operation after another. Yet even in unbearable pain, his courage and his stoicism were heroic. We lost The Iron Man too soon, but he has inspired my wife and me for all time, and thousands of others.

 

We are eternally grateful for our good fortune in having such wonderful fathers.

 

Bouquet: To Carlton and Emerald City Supermarkets in their new initiative, warning customers to moderate their use of sugar and salt. Congratulations!

 

In Memory: Of my artist friend Bill Grace, artist, sculptor, studio potter, musician, environmentalist, philosopher, teacher, friend and more – cultural icon and national treasure – a remarkable man in every way – who died two years ago last Monday, June 13th.

 

Professor Fraser is past Dean of Medical Sciences, UWI and Professor Emeritus of Medicine. Website: profhenryfraser.com