Renowned poet dies of heart attack

Barnabas Ramon-Fortune, well known local and international poet, short story writer, and journalist, has died.

Eighty-six-year old Fortune collapsed and died of a heart attack in front of Royal Bank, San Juan on Thursday. Fortune’s writing career began in 1935, at the of 18. In the 1950s he gave weekly commentaries on the radio and produced plays for a weekly Catholic forum called “Off the Air.” He produced an extensive body of work spanning from the local border to as far as Uganda. He was the recipient of several prestigious awards and many of his poems have been collected into the International Poetry Hall of Fame. Some of his poems and short stories have also been broadcasted on government programmes and have been published in various popular magazines like People Magazine, the West Indian Review, BIM Magazine.

In the 1980’s and 1990’s, Fortune wrote for the weekly newspaper Catholic News, under a column called “Little Essays by a Dad.” During that time he also appeared regularly on television story-telling to children. Those days he was popularly known as “Uncle Rikki tikki tavi.”

June Johnston, editor of the Catholic News, described Fortune as an extraordinary person. “He was always punctual and on time,” she said, “He was kind and loving to all the staff members, who referred to him as ‘Dad’.” Johnston added that Fortune was noted for his sense of humour and expressed her disappointment at hearing of his death. “I was very upset to hear of his death, especially at a time like this. I know it is hard for his family. He lived a good life and would be surely missed by us here at the Catholic News,” she said.

His daughter, Joan Fortune — Miller described her father as a people person.  “Daddy loved to walk and make friends and that is what he was doing at the time of his death,” she stated. Fortune leaves to mourn his wife of 61 years, 12 children and 33 grandchildren. His funeral will be held on Monday 23, December at 10 am at St Theresa’s Roman Catholic Church in Malick.