Former classmates recall Rowley's drive to excel

EVEN during his years as a student at Bishop’s High School, Tobago, the Prime Minister had always exhibited the qualities of a leader.

This is the view of Dr Rowley’s former classmates and teachers at his alma mater, which he attended from 1962-1966.

Rowley, who turns 76 on October 24, said on February 26 that he would resign officially as head of the government on March 16, after serving 44 years in public life.

Energy Minister Stuart Young will become Trinidad and Tobago’s next prime minister. Rowley will remain political leader of the PNM but has bowed out of electoral politics.

Selwyn Pilgrim, one of Rowley’s closest boyhood friends, said the outgoing prime minister had always “assumed leadership” for the activities in which he was engaged.

He said he was not surprised when Rowley entered politics on a People’s National Movement (PNM) ticket in 1981 and eventually rose to the position of prime minister.

“He was always a leader,” Pilgrim told Sunday Newsday.

He said Rowley was a prominent figure in Bishop’s Literary and Debating Society and, at one time, was also the school’s head boy.

Rowley, he said, also led on the playing field.

“One thing I always tell people is that he loved cricket. I remember in first and second form, we used to play with tin cups and a coconut bat when we didn’t have a ball.

“He (Rowley) was a fast bowler and from morning he always assumed leadership in the cricket. When we played, he was always the captain and from early o’clock, we used to call him the skipper. That name stayed with him.”

Pilgrim said they sometimes played on opposing teams.

“I loved to bat against him because my favourite shot was the square cut so whenever he was bowling he used to bowl balls outside the off stump and I loved that. Sometimes when I was playing against him, I used to enjoy that because he used to facilitate my square cut.”

He also described his friend as playful and mischievous in school.

“We used to sit together and do everything together. So when he got punished, I got punished and vice-versa. Many times, when we finished our work, we would provoke the other children in the class.”

The Sherwood Park, Carnbee, Tobago resident recalled that Rowley had once encouraged him to leave the school’s Mayfair prematurely.

“I remember the first time I went to Rex cinema (now defunct) in Scarborough, he was the man who took me there. We really left to go to a Mayfair but during the Mayfair, he took me to the cinema. I remember it was the first time that I went there. I even remember the film that we saw, Jason and the Argonauts.”

On a deeper level, Pilgrim said Rowley, a geologist by profession, took his education seriously.

“Although he was mischievous when it came to serious things, he would take serious things seriously to the extent where one day our geography teacher came late to class and Keith Rowley chided him for coming to class late. I will never forget that.”

Pilgrim, who navigates between Tobago and Canada, taught French, Spanish and English at several secondary schools in both Trinidad and Tobago. He retired several years ago as an English Language teacher in Canada.

He said the PM played a major role in his decision to study English Literature at university.

Pilgrim said they often sat in the school’s auditorium discussing the books and authors they studied, including Thomas Hardy and William Shakespeare.

Far From The Madding Crowd, The Mayor of Casterbridge and Twelfth Night were among the books they studied.

Pilgrim said, “He showed so much passion for those books and that passion came over me and I ended up studying American literature, French literature, Spanish literature, Russian literature. I thought he, too, would have studied literature at university but he studied geology because he was very good at geography.”

He said he treasures the friendship they have maintained over the years.

“Keith Rowley was always in and out of my parents’ house and I was always in and out of his parents’ house.”

Another classmate, Jerome Keens Dumas, supported the view that Rowley had always exhibited leadership characteristics.

“He always demonstrated that capacity to lead and always strove for excellence,” said Dumas, who retired as a THA chief administrator more than 13 years ago.

“He had purpose in his schooling at the time. But I’ll be honest with you, some of us didn’t have purpose, we just went to school so we allowed the system to evaluate us and deal with us accordingly, some of us successfully, some not so successful. But we were both able to actualise. He went into politics and I into science and administration.”

Keens Dumas told Sunday Newsday he last saw Rowley at a Bishop’s class reunion in January, where they reminisced about their school days.

It included a thanksgiving service at the St Patrick’s Anglican Church, Mt Pleasant and a dinner at the Prime Minister’s official residence in Blenheim.

The celebration coincided with Bishop’s centennial observance.

Keens Dumas said Rowley, at one of the events, observed that all of his classmates were retired while he was still working.

“But he is going to join us later this month.”

Keens Dumas said the class of ‘62 entered Bishop’s the same year TT became independent.

“It was a significant time for us as young fellas because we got to go to school free. It was the first time we had free secondary education.”

He said they grew up as “normal little fellas taking part in sports and doing all of the foolish little things that fellas do.”

But he said Rowley enjoyed cricket while he was more into athletics.

Keens Dumas also recalled him as being a simple individual.

“He was just a happy schoolboy from Mason Hall, who would have had bread and cheese from the parlour down the road and walked from school to home on afternoons.”

Retired school vice-principal Marva Daniel-Bernard said the veteran politician was always able to balance fun with his school work.

“My recollection of Keith would have been mostly from second form because we sat close to each other. He would make a joke out of every situation.

When you saw a little smile on Keith, you knew that it was something he had in his head that he was coming with to make you laugh,” she said.

But Daniel-Bernard recalled from third form onwards “he became serious with his books.

“He was an all-round student as most of us were because we were in the A stream but I remember Keith really loving geography and debating.

“He loved arguing and winning the argument.”

Former Anglican Bishop Calvin Bess taught General Paper in sixth form for two years before moving back to Trinidad. Rowley was one of his students.

Bess said, “He has always been a very determined, focused student, always very passionate about whatever he got into. He gave it his all.”

He, too, regarded Rowley as an all-round student.

“He was very brilliant academically and he also participated in sporting activities, mainly cricket, and athletics. And the same passion he approached his academics was the same passion he approached his athletics or his cricket. That is the person I remember.”

Bess, who served as Anglican Bishop from 2001-2011, said he also was not afraid to share his views on issues.

He said they share a close relationship.

“We were always in contact to the point where, when he was getting engaged to Sharon Clarke, he asked me to preside over the engagement ceremony. And we have kept in contact through the years in various ways.”