Nine inducted into St Mary’s Hall of Fame

The St Mary’s College (CIC) Past Students’ Union on Saturday held their Biennial Dinner for 2003 to celebrate the 140th Anniversary of the founding of the College and also inducted nine persons into their Hall of Fame.

This year’s inductees included Professors Emmanuel Amoroso and Courtney Bartholomew; William “Willie” Clerk; Charlie Davis; Former Chief Justice Michael de la Bastide; J Hamilton Holder; Dr Allastair Carmody; Fr Gerry Pantin and Andre Tanker who recently passed away. According to President of the St Mary’s College Past Students’ Union, Dr Edison Haqq, over the last two years, efforts were intensified to improve the school through various fund-raising efforts.

The most successful of which turned out to be the all-inclusive Carnival fete, claimed Haqq, as the Past Student body was able to donate approximately $100,000 towards building the new Form Six block. Stating that there was “a chronic shortage of Form Six places” in the nation’s schools, “especially at CIC,” Haqq revealed that they were hoping to donate yet another $150,000 to the school. Announcing that January 31, 2004 had been selected as the date for next year’s Carnival fete, Haqq said the calypso competition would be held sometime in November of this year. The association also recognised three past students celebrating the jubilee of their priestly ordination by presenting them with special CIC pins: Fr Phillip Ford for 50 years service; Fr Michael Makhan and Fr Sydney Chang, both for 40 years service each.

The CIC Hall of Fame, which was established in 1997, honours persons every two years who might be considered a role model or viewed as having made a significant contribution to the country.
* Professors Amoroso and Bartholomew were honoured for their work in the field of Medicine and AIDS research
* Clerk for his involvement with the St Vincent de Paul Society for over 30 years;
* Davis for his invaluable contribution to the game of cricket both to the school and the national team
* Former Chief Justice Michael de la Bastide for his contribution to the legal field
* J Hamilton Holder to the field of Education and the development of the Progressive Educational Institute
* Dr Allastair Carmody for research into Medicine
* Fr Gerry Pantin for his charity work, especially with Servol
* Andre Tanker for his invaluable contribution to the musical field.

There are now 44 persons in the CIC Hall of Fame, following Saturday night’s announcement, with the official induction ceremony to be held later on in October. In his toast to the CIC Past Students’ Union, Anthony Phillip thanked the inductees for the role they have played in assisting the school, as well as other parts of the orgsanisation, such as the Inter-Class Debates for Form Six and the development of a Parenting Programme for Form One students. Among Saturday night’s invited guests were President of the Republic of TT George Maxwell Richards; Chief Justice Sat Sharma; former President Sir Ellis Clarke; Archbishop Edward Gilbert and former Chief of Defence Joseph Theodore.