FSVGSINC

TRIBUTE TO THE LATE DR. ERROL G. KING

18.AUG.06

Dr. Errol G. King a respected, kind-hearted son of the soil

Dr. Errol G. King passed away on Sunday August 13 at the age of 64 years. His funeral service will be held today at St. George's Cathedral at 3 p.m. Interment will be at churchyard cemetery.

We reprint this Nelson King feature first published on December 17, 2004 in tribute to this outstanding son of the soil.

by Nelson A. King in New York

IN an extraordinary joint initiative, the St. Vincent and the Grenadines' New York Consulate General and the Brooklyn-based umbrella group, Council of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, United States, Inc. (COSAGO), have honoured a prominent retired Vincentian surgeon, Dr. Errol G. King.

Dr. King, 62, a fixture in the Vincentian community in New York, returned to his homeland permanently in August to enjoy his golden years, after working for 16 uninterrupted years as an attending surgeon in the emergency room at the popular Kings County Hospital in Brooklyn. [more]

Tribute from SVG Tennis Association

18.AUG.06

It is with a deep sense of sadness that the tennis fraternity in the country mourns the death of Dr. Errol King, a true tennis enthusiast and early local player of the game. His contribution to the development is well documented.

He was delighted with the development of the sport and accessed tennis scholarships for talented young Vincentian players, over the years. One of his goals was to reduce into writing his vast knowledge of the history of the sport in St. Vincent and the Grenadines and we lament the fact of his passing having not accomplished this mammoth task.

His knowledge of the local tennis history is beyond comparison. The executive and members of the SVGTA join with the entire tennis playing community to offer our condolences to his family at this difficult time.

Farewell to dear friend Dr. E.G. King

by Winston Baptiste 18.AUG.06

I first met E.G. when he was a student of the St. Vincent Grammar School in the 1950s.

I was one of his teachers. He came to my attention under somewhat tragic circumstances.

It was during the first term of the year and students were preparing for the annual Athletic Sports meeting, one of the major sporting events on the school's sporting calendar.

E.G. was practising for an event called 'The Javelin Throw". Unfortunately, his throw was misdirected, probably by wind, and the javelin struck one of his schoolmates, eventually resulting in the youngster's death.

I can only imagine the kind of trauma which young E.G. experienced after this incident. However, as time passed by, he was able to resume concentrating on his schoolwork.

And how well did he succeed. He breezed through his academic work and continued participating in sports, especially football.

He won the Island Scholarship and went off to Jamaica to pursue a degree in medicine at UCWI, now UWI. He graduated with Honours and, after a short stint at home, moved to the USA to pursue Post Graduate Studies.

E.G. spent most of his productive years in the U.S. but never lost contact with friends in SVG, especially his alma mater. In fact, when I last saw him he was wearing a red jersey with the school's emblem on it. He reminded me that red was the colour of his House at Grammar School, School House.

With your passing, SVG has lost one of its brillant sons.

Farewell, my friend.

Farewell to E.G.

Bassy Alexander 18.AUG.06

Extracted from the Searchlight Newspaper, SVG

Just over ah year ago the Classes of 1954 and1955 celebrated ah milestone that marked fifty years since we had entered Grammar School. In our preparations EG as in E.G. King and not talk-show host Elwardo "EG" Lynch was selected to head ah small committee to plan ah week of activities foh de occasion. Ah think ah did ah fair bit ah coverage ah what transpired at those preparatory meetings, but ah may have omitted to mention that we had all agreed that since we were all in our sixties and like ripe mangoes ready to be picked; that our names were high on the list ah candidates foh selection foh duties on de Other Side; furthermore any gather-in of the group in the future will most likely be at members' funerals. Since then we gather-in once foh Dougie Cambridge's funeral and this week we will gather-in again to pay our last respects to our Cheerman EG.

EG was ah man with moods, not excluding those harassing moments that he himself add-myth were splashes of his "senior moments"! But de side that will long be remembered, is his selflessness and kindness, true Christian Qualities. Ah lot ah we does go church three, four days ah week and twice pon ah Sunday, but selfishness and greed foh material worth done eat out we soul, our life is as MT as ah barrel. Not EG King, he was Generous, Thoughtful and Kind. He was Compassionate to people he didn't know at times, and found time foh people in need of his care and attention. Folks in New York speak volumes of his generosity. He gave up ah lucrative profession in the USA to come home to tek care of his Mother, Miss Norma and lately his former school-master Winston "Sir Bats" Baptiste who all ah we abandoned.

Undoubtedly one ah de brighter students to have passed thru the corridors ah de Grammar School, following in de steps ah Dennis Crichton who placed first in the Commonwealth HSC Exams and won the Island Schol all at age sixteen. EG however, had ah passionate love foh his Alma Mater and was always in touch with the school, seeking ways he could assist, and indeed he made his contributions. His last mission was during his farewell trip to New York in May where he collected and shipped all of the trophies foh de School's Graduation 2006.

Ah don't think EG saw last Friday's Papers with the GHS past students gather-in in Canada way dey selected steering committees to start preparing foh their centennial celebrations in 2011, looks like dey planning ah Big Ting. Ah glad he didn't see de Papers, something like that he wouldn't miss calling to harass me foh our tardiness. One ah EG's greatest wish was to be ah part ah Grammar School centennial celebrations in 2008. After de modest success ah our 50th anniversary, he was all hyped-up foh de 2008 Celebrations, he even tried ah couple times calling ah meeting to get plans going foh that grand occasion, but on both attempts no more than three guys turned up.

On ah lighter side ah things we shared ah couple bright moments together, like when he went with me to Shatto to do ah job, there was ah lady supervisor from de Bank with us. We had lunch at de Beach Bar and EG who is supposed to be this ain't-no-saint guy, was at his sharpest wits. When we got back he phoned me to say thanks, then enquired when is de next trip and informed me that he will be interested in going along. And then he added: " Make sure and get that young lady to come along as well, she's very nice"! Ah sware ah ain't know what he was trying to get me to do.

His brightest period since he is back home, was Christmas 2005. His son Eric spent the holidays with him and seems like dey had ah blast together. But if you know EG well enough, he's tight lip and preserves his privacy, he however spoke ah great deal of his son's visit. Ah think his spirit still remained energized after Eric went back.

While writing this article, Dr Franklyn "Priest" Jacobs phoned from the UK to remind us that EG would have kept ah compilation of ah lot ah valuable records ah the school, that we should get Eric to secure them as they will be of great use in the writing of the School's history. It would not be me or it would be ah remiss if ah didn't add that Priest of "corned beef and rice" fame, like he had something in his mouth while talking to me, ah couldn't recognize what he was saying, so ah asked him if something was wrong with his mouth, in his strong English accent he replied: " Nod-add-all Bessy, it's lunch toime in Englond and I'm hoving lunch, I'm just putting away some good ole corned beef on roice!" You think my Classmates and dem was easy eh?

So on Friday we will say goodbye to EG and send him to meet his Heavenly Father, de King! And with that ah gone again.

One Love Bassy !

Tribute by C.I. Martin

E.G. King and I entered the Grammar School on the same day and completed the course at the same time. Together we also learned to play tennis and in that game there is a saying "Some day you will meet your uncle". This means that at some time or other you will meet the man who will beat you. From the time we were both in the entry form in the Grammar School I realized I had met my uncle.

EG was probably the first student to win the island scholarship doing science subjects. Consequently he went straightaway into medical school. In the critical second MB examinations he was a prizewinner and I, who was in the same university residence (Taylor Hall) with him at the time, took great pride in his achievements. It meant he was not only my uncle but also the uncle of the cream of the crop of the Caribbean.

Many people could not comprehend his very intense personality. Often I had to explain how we could hold conversations which were really monologues by him. I would assure them that he and I had known each other for a long time and in any case he talks sense so I only had to interject "yes, yes" from time to time. Later, when those same people got to know him better they admitted he was a very fine fellow indeed.

Errol could be fiercely loyal. Having won the island scholarship I noted that he was researching American universities and writing off for application forms. "What are you doing that for?" I asked him. "Brother Roy (Ambassador Austin) has to get a scholarship too and I am doing some preliminary research for him." It was not difficult to appreciate the strong bond between those two. Both poor boys, the one from Paul's Lot, the other from Bottom Town, who realized the Grammar School was their escape route from poverty.

The other day he came into my office, pounded on the desk and shouted, "Cims, why are they treating Victor (Hadley) like that? They don't know Victor. So and so (naming the writer of the offending article in question) is an arse, he is an arse, Cims." It is not only that he was at school with Victor, but on that fateful day of the javelin I was on the playing field with him and it was Victor's younger brother Jeffrey, a very cool and self-assured character, who tried to sort matters out. Errol never forgot it.

The Nobel prizewinner, Sir Arthur Lewis, who won the St. Lucia scholarship at a very early age, took two years off working in the Civil Service, before going on to university. I often think had Errol done this he would have escaped some of his life's sorrows. I was two years his senior and spent a year working before going to UWI. That year at least afforded me time to make a fool of myself over a girl or two before again becoming involved in the relentless beating of books.

Dr. 'EG' King July 19,1942 August 13, 2006

by Roy L. Austin

During the 1950s, and most likely in other years, certain academically outstanding students at the St. Vincent Grammar School were referred to as "bright-boys." Usually, these students had turned in such stellar performances in Form 2B, the higher of two entrance forms, that at the end of the year they had been double skipped past Forms 2A and 3B to Form 3A. At most, three students out of 30-plus were accorded this honor. However, in two cases of which I am aware, at the end of their second year, these students then skipped Form 4B and entered Form 4A. One of these exceptional students is my friend, Dr. Errol Gladstone "EG" King, who departed this life on August 13th this year.

My most vivid memory of EG is that he possessed a sharp mind that attended to and retained details that many other people have difficulty grasping and/or remembering. I am almost equally impressed with his super patriotism that kept him constantly seeking ways to engage in activities that benefited St. Vincent and Vincentians. His generosity in this regard, and in numerous other respects, knew no bounds. Admirably, too, he put a substantial amount of time into athletic activities and developed some prowess in this sphere. That is, despite his academic brilliance, he was not just a bookworm. It would be difficult to justify describing someone who "limed" with the Bridge Boys as such.

EG entered the Grammar School in 1954 with a Kingstown Board Scholarship, one of only three scholarships for which he was eligible. These scholarships paid school fees and provided books, a significant help for the fortunate few out of the many parents who had difficulty meeting these expenses. Throughout his years in this school, he showed that his winning of this scholarship was no fluke. There is only one end-of-year exam in which he did not take the first place, his Form 4A final. Although he placed second, a conversation I had with him in 2001 suggested that he had still not come to terms with what he may have perceived as a meaningful blot on his record. He clearly held such high expectations of himself that he did not regard being at least two years younger than almost all others in the form as an acceptable reason for not taking first place. Most of the other students had also entered school at least two years before he did.

Four distinctions

Whatever may have been the depth of his feeling about that second-place finish, in later years, his performance left no doubt about his academic superiority over his competitors. In the 1957 School Certificate Exam (later replaced by the "O-Level" GCE), EG emerged as the top student. He obtained four distinctions, a number rarely achieved in St. Vincent at that time, and a similarly rare First-Grade Certificate. Two years later, he took the top spot in the Higher School Certificate Exam (H.S.C; replaced by the A-Level G.G.E.) and earned the Island Scholarship, then awarded every other year.

Did EG take the first place so consistently because of the weakness of the students against whom he competed? The success at later educational pursuits of his secondary school classmates suggests otherwise. For instance, all but one of the thirteen boys who wrote the HSC in 1959 later obtained at least a baccalaureate. The group also counts at least two terminal Masters degrees, four Ph.Ds and two MDs.

You may wonder at such a remarkable record when you discover that five of the members of this class, including EG, were "Bridge Boys", then often regarded as spending too much time in idle pursuits on the "Back Street" bridge over the North River in Kingstown. We who hung out on The Bridge prefer to see the hours spent there as contributing to our educational success. This was a place to gain some respite from a rigorous study session, especially during the long vacations that preceded our School Certificate and Higher School Certificate exams. As importantly, we learnt who could faultlessly repeat the long speeches from our Shakespeare textbook and everybody endeavored to be up to this task the next time that we met. Also, chemistry students left knowing that they needed an extra effort to become proficient at balancing equations. Having a good student like EG in our midst inspired us to work harder; but he, too, was pushed toward stronger performances because he was not dealing with slouches.

EG's academic prowess

Further evidence of EG's academic prowess is manifest in his performance in medical school at the University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica. Especially illustrative is that he won two of the three prizes awarded on the basis of 2nd MB results. His achievement is more remarkable when one realizes that the five of us who wrote botany and chemistry exams for the H.S.C. in 1959 had no regular teacher during the year. Indeed, our Lower Sixth Form teachers in these subjects had us write out the exam syllabi before they left the country in 1958; and we studied these subjects with occasional assistance from Dr. Chaudhuri and Mr. Boss, botanist and chemist, respectively, employed in arrowroot research.

For most of our science periods, Winston Daisley, Cyril Lewis, Chris Stephens, EG and I ran metals tests, practiced titrations, sharpened our botanical section-cutting skills, or simply studied from our books. Even the dirt from outside the laboratory was a suitable medium for metals tests. We always found iron but no precious metals. We also conversed about a wide variety of subjects.

Our activities in the laboratory strengthened our friendship. However, I assume that the presence of teachers provided EG's 2nd MB classmates, especially the "big-islanders," with a more supportive Upper Sixth Form educational environment; but he overcame this disadvantage and left them behind too.

On the basis of his 2nd MB accomplishment, EG was offered the opportunity to spend a year in England pursuing further studies in one of the subjects in which he had won a prize. He told me that he declined the offer because he did not wish to fall behind his classmates; but I suspect that we who are from relatively disadvantaged economic circumstances often try to hasten the day when we can feel a modicum of economic independence. Thus, I once felt that seven years of schooling to become a medical doctor was more than I could bear. However, my post-secondary education kept me in school for eight years.

As many of us grew up in Kingstown, there was often a recreational location that we frequented. EG's residence in Paul's Lot placed him in close proximity to Guide Ground; and prior to entering the Grammar School, this was his primary playing field. It may be that he developed his love of sports and his football skills here. In any event, he became a dependable defender and represented the Eagles Club after secondary school; but his greatest athletic success may have been in the high jump, an event in which he took several first places in Grammar School sports.

At Mona, EG began playing tennis, a sport that the economic circumstances of most of us put outside of our reach as we grew up in St. Vincent. He became an avid tennis player, promoted the sport when he moved his medical practice to St. Vincent, and managed touring St. Vincent teams. He also followed international tennis closely and made certain to attend some U.S. Open matches.

Sending manuscripts

Since 1964, EG and I were mostly separated by long distances, but we communicated first by snail mail, then by telephone, and recently by e-mail. His communications yielded much information on Vincentian or wider Caribbean matters. He would tell me about taking systematic notes on his direct observations of St. Vincent flora and weather. Whereas most of us are satisfied with others' reports, the scholar in EG led him to examine his environment himself. Sometimes, he supplemented this information by sending me manuscripts by others. Among these are: Pauline Daniels' "A Tribute to Professor Orde Coombs," our friend who was in Upper Six when we were in Lower Six; the text of a speech about King Ja Ja of Opobo by Edward Cox; and "Tropical Trees" and "Tropical Blossoms of the Caribbean" by Dorothy and Bob Hargreaves.

However, we occasionally had enjoyable face-to-face meetings in several different places: New Haven, New York City, St. Vincent and New Orleans; in East Brunswick, NJ, and Washington, D.C.; in Trinidad and in State College, PA. This last deserves some elaboration because the circumstances were so strange.

The Caribbean Students Association (CSA) of Penn State met every other Friday evening on campus. Several years ago, I invited the organization to meet at my home because a Vincentian, Gloria Regisford, was scheduled to make a presentation about St. Vincent. To create the right atmosphere, I planned to show a video with Vincentian scenes and my wife, Glynis, offered Vincentian cuisine. About midway through the proceedings, I answered the doorbell and was pleasantly surprised to behold EG. He knew that our close friendship allowed and could only be strengthened by such amusing behaviors. Many years earlier, I had allayed any doubt about the esteem in which I held him by naming him my older son's godfather.

Major contributions

With the focus of the CSA meeting being on St. Vincent, it was appropriate that EG who had given so much of his time energy and money to help Vincentians should show up. Arnold "Lydon" Charles has reminded me of several of EG's major contributions: President of Friends of the St. Vincent Grammar School for several years; representing this organization on the Council of St. Vincent and the Grenadines Organizations, Inc., and serving as the Council's President many times; making gifts of trophies to the Grammar School for Speech Night awardees; leading the drive to obtain such trophies even after Friends began paying for them; paving the way for young Vincentians to obtain financial aid to attend American universities and using his own finances to subsidize their aid packages or pay for their applications; and providing track suits for a Grammar School track and field team at his own expense.

Nor was the Grammar School the only beneficiary of his thoughtfulness. He sourced uniforms for the SVG National football squad, was involved with the SVG Council's purchase of medical supplies for the SVG hospital; and with the health fair sponsored by Vincentian nurses in New York. He richly deserved the award that the Council bestowed on him.

I thank our friend Arnold "Lydon" Charles for supplying many details of EG's New York work for St. Vincent. However, I provided a few of the books that EG sent to SVG. In his typical meticulous fashion, EG sometimes on visiting SVG had to trace the whereabouts of those book and deliver them to their intended recipients. I also well remember his stated feeling that he owed his education to SVG and was returning home to give Vincentians the benefit of his medical skills. Such thoughtfulness should be more widespread.

I have wondered whether EG's retirement to SVG was his way of ensuring that he would draw his last breath in this land that he loved so dearly. I saw him twice in 2002 and on neither occasion was he in good health. I also heard about his weakened state from many friends; but he never once discussed with me the severity of his illness. He had never been a complainer. Indeed, one Vincentian told me that EG this year upbraided him for mentioning the hardships the friend had endured in his youth in SVG. In a voice that seemed to hold some annoyance, he told this friend that he was not the only one who experienced such difficulty. Like EG, many of us who were his closest friends know firsthand of what he spoke.

Bridge meeting

Looking back now, our last set of contacts suggests that we were engaged in summarizing our relationship. Starting in 2002, we sauntered over familiar territory that we had often traveled together. In that year, he visited Glynis and me in Trinidad, and for the first time in many years we solved all of the world's problems. Later in the same year, we celebrated Vincy Mas on the streets of Kingstown, lingering near the Bridge to be introduced by Bridge Boy Spence to his niece. Then about two weeks before he died, we had our final phone conversation. He informed me of a 2006 Carnival band that included a repeat of an earlier Bridge Boys portrayal. Also, he mentioned a publication project intending to collect issues of the magazine Flambeau in three volumes. Interestingly, the first volume, already published, contains an article on The Bridge Boys, and we discussed its accuracy. Our conversation was a most fitting finale to our long friendship.

EG is survived by many people for whom he cared deeply. The day that I learnt of his death, I phoned his mother to offer some words of comfort. Her voice displayed the strength, composure and pride of a mother who knew that she had reared a special son who showed his gratitude in numerous ways. Then there is his son, Erik, on whom he lavished much attention. When surgery deprived EG of his voice for a while, we kept in touch through Erik, and I sensed in this son many of the decent traits of his father.

To his grieving mother and son, as well as to Betty and Margaret, I offer my condolences; and I know that I am joined by a multitude of friends who sat with us in the Grammar School, traipsed the streets of Kingstown, enjoyed sessions on The Bridge, and shared membership in The Eagles Club. We will always remember the happy days we spent with EG.