Tribute to Lester Henry

DR SAMANTHA CHAITRAM

TWENTY YEARS ago I was an undergraduate economics major at the University of the West Indies (UWI) and I took a class in monetary theory and policy with Dr Lester Henry. In contrast to his colleagues, he was very comfortable, coming to lecture in his jeans and T-shirt; occasionally he wore a shirt. He was so down-to-earth and available to his students that I started going to his office hours.

Lester was excellent at breaking down complex theories and showing the application to real-world scenarios. With a PhD from the US, he displayed a style of simplicity not only in how he dressed, but in the books he selected, which broke difficult topics into digestible material, and in his interactions with everyone.

He was never about his title. In fact, he told me to call him Lester, that these titles were unnecessary. As a doctoral student he was used to having a beer with his American professors, who also wore jeans to class and they went on a first-name basis.

On entering his office, the first thing you notice is a wall of photos with his students. I was curious about a collage of photos with students in Washington DC and Queretaro, Mexico. He explained that in 1999 he took his first group of students on an Organization of American States (OAS) model programme in DC and another year he took another group of students to Mexico.

I was so excited about the prospect of also being selected I decided to work even harder at his course. The OAS programme was subsequently cancelled and I never had the opportunity to travel with him, but my friendship grew for the next 20 years as he became an unwavering support in all my educational and professional pursuits.

In 2005 I got my first internship at the Ministry of Trade and Industry because Lester recommended students every year for the ministry’s summer programme. Many years later he encouraged me and several others who were close to him to pursue doctoral studies abroad. He always said, “Don’t just learn from me, but go out there and learn from others who will give you a different perspective.”

Lester wrote one of my recommendation letters for my Fulbright scholarship application without hesitation, even though I applied at the last minute.

When I went to the US in 2012, Lester continued to be a support, via e-mail and in person when I came home for holidays as he understood how difficult it was to be an international student. He always shared the stories of all his former students who he helped in some form to study in North America.

Just a few weeks before his untimely passing I was sitting in his office as I often stopped by to chat. He told me, “I help those who I can. All I ask is that those who I help return the favour to someone else.” I did not know that would have been my last in-person conversation with him.

Lester, born in October, was a true Libra who loved to socialise and always made time for his circle of students and friends. Over the years I was a regular at his famous birthday and Christmas “office lime” where I met many of the students he mentored and intellectuals from campus.

From time to time I went with him to one of his favourite liming spots, All Out in the Oval, where I met his football buddies and would bounce him up in UWI and Fatima fetes. I once even had drinks with him and his father in Port of Spain.

When he became a senator, our discussions often covered politics and many issues of national importance. He gave me insights and explanations which nobody else could to help me understand what was going on in the country.

For those of us who Lester took under his wings, and there were quite a few of us, we had the privilege of being mentored by a humble man with outstanding achievements who genuinely wanted his students to soar and achieve even more than he ever did.

He taught me what true friendship meant and he went above and beyond to help his students and friends. He was my loyal friend for 20 years and he played such a huge part in my life that it still seems unreal that he will no longer be in his office on campus for me to stop by and say hello.

So many of us, especially PhD graduates, owe our success to him. Dr Lester Henry will forever be in my heart, may his soul rest in peace.