In Loving Memory

UWI DR OF LAWS Award

Prime Minister of Jamaica

MR. CHANCELLOR: The introduction of the honorary graduand who stands before you necessitates a brief lecture on the game of field hockey. The experts will tell you that one of the key factors in the game is the player’s reach, his ability to extend himself, so to speak, in going for the ball. Our honorary graduand was a brilliant hockey player, noted for his prodigious reach. He represented his school, his university and his country at the game. He played at a position which was at one and the same time a roving position and one which required a capacity for stout defence. His reach was often a decisive factor in his defensive play. Former opponents still speak of him as “a man nobody could get past.”

I speak, Mr. Chancellor, of the President of the College of Arts, Science and Technology, Dr. Alfred Sangster, Commander of the Order of Distinction, Doctor of Philosophy, Gold Musgrave Medallist of the Institute of Jamaica, Fellow of the Jamaica Institute of Management, Justice of the Peace. His prowess at hockey provides us with metaphors for those qualities which distinguish him as a person and which ensured his achievement in arenas more considerable than the hockey field.

Born the son of a farmer in the hill country of St. Elizabeth, he was used to the outdoors and close to the soil, and he will tell you with pride that he has never had a problem with getting his hands dirty. Such were the beginnings of one who was to become a leader in the field of practical and technological education. From his father, who was also a successful politician, he got not only an example of public service, but also what he now considers to have been good advice: “Keep clear of politics, my son.” It was his mother who provided him with something of a career model. Her first class honours degree in Botany from the University of Edinburgh was the example to inspire his own first class honours degree in Chemistry from Queen’s University, Belfast.

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When he entered Munro College in 1944 he was, in his own words, “a shy country boy,” and he found the notorious Munro ragging a traumatic experience. But he withstood the test, by an inherent strength of character which increased in the process, and he became one of the finest all rounders whom Munro has produced.

He entered Queen’s University in the same term in which the University College of the West Indies admitted its first students. He might well have been among them, were it not for the fact that that first class was limited to medical students. However, by the time he graduated in 1952 the Faculty of Natural Sciences had been started here at Mona, and he was offered an appointment as Assistant Lecturer in Chemistry. In accepting the post he had to decline the award of a postgraduate scholarship at Queen’s.

So began eighteen years of service to this institution. He had joined what was soon to be recognised as, arguably, the most vibrant and productive Department on the Mona campus at that time, and he contributed his full measure to the establishment of its tradition of excellence. The influence of the Department’s first Professor, Cedric Hassall, was invaluable. Alfred Sangster describes him as “a driver.” May we not be allowed to suspect, Mr. Chancellor, that the awe and relish with which he says this bespeak a kindred spirit?

Things were going well for our honorary graduand. He had obtained his doctorate; he was developing a thriving research interest in marine chemistry; he had been promoted to the rank of Senior Lecturer, and – sweetest gift of all – Mona had given him a wife. There was no sign of a turning in the road ahead. However, in 1969, while he was on a research fellowship at the University of Hawaii, he received a letter from Jamaica asking him to consider taking on the headship of CAST. Well, on the fabled beaches of Hawaii – and remember, Chancellor, that he was now a marine chemist and so had every right to be on those beaches – on the beaches of Hawaii such an unexpected suggestion, from so many thousand miles away, seemed unreal. But when he returned to Mona certain persons kept appearing at his door. He became Principal of CAST on 1st September 1970, and so entered upon his life’s great work.

For him to take on the challenge of CAST at the time when he did, was to be thrown in at the proverbial deep end. But our honorary graduand is also a strong swimmer and holds a medallion of the Royal Life Saving Society. To use his own characteristic words about his early years at CAST, “1 suppose I had to survive, and I survived.” But he did much more than just survive. The College grew in all respects under his leadership, and he grew in stature with it. When he went there it was floundering. Today it is recognised as the leading national tertiary-level educational institution of the English-speaking Caribbean.

Dr, Sangster considers that one of the finest compliments he has ever received on his work at CAST was paid him by one of the strong department heads whom he found there and who did not exactly make life easy for him at first. When he was leaving through no fault of the Principal’s, Chancellor this colleague, addressing the Principal at the farewell function in his honour, said, “When you came we had a series of departments. Now we have a college.

Under Alfred Sangsterl s leadership, student enrolment has grown from under 1500 to over 4000. Some 40 new courses have been introduced, because he has always sought to respond as quickly as possible to specifically identified national manpower needs. His other pioneering developments include the introduction of job-oriented modular courses, a work-and-study program me, the fourthterm concept, and the Technical Teacher Education program me. And, to crown all these developments, CAST is now a degree granting institution.

But his outstanding achievement at CAST is not confined to the academic sphere. For example, he has fostered the development of a vibrant sports program me. Another achievement which has given him much personal satisfaction is the introduction of a contributory pension scheme for ancillary staff, a development which necessitated all his dogged persistence against bureaucratic obstacles and official apathy.

As Robert Browning wrote, “A man’s reach should exceed his grasp, else what’s a heaven for.” Mention of heaven reminds us that the underpinning of Alfred Sangster’s life, of his sense of responsibility to society, of his selfless devotion to duty, has been his abiding Christian faith. And in Christ’s vineyard too he has been a tireless worker, having been Chairman of the Board of the Student Christian Fellowship and Scripture Union for over thirty years.

At this time, when our university celebrates forty years of service to the community, how fitting that we should, with big-brotherly pride and solicitude, congratulate our younger sibling the College of Arts. Science and Technology as it celebrates its thirtieth birthday, and how fitting that we should do so by honouring the man who has meant so much to that institution.

Mr. Chancellor, I present Alfred Maxwell Watt Sangster, educator, and invite you, by the authority vested in you by the Council and Senate of this university, to confer on him the degree of Doctor of Laws honoris causa.

November 26, 1 988 Mona Campus

Errol Miller letter to Gleaner

Dear Editor,

In reflecting on Jamaicans who have made great contributions to our country since Independence but did not become involved in party politics, Alfred Sangster loomed large.

His contributions to building Jamaica are monumental. Three are sufficient to make the point — the impact of any one being outstanding by any criteria:

First, Dr Sangster’s single-minded, Herculean efforts and exemplary leadership at the College of Arts, Science, and Technology (CAST) brought this government tertiary institution to become the University of Technology, Jamaica (UTech).

Thousands of Jamaican and Caribbean past students of CAST/UTech have had their life chances put on a positive trajectory because of its courses and credentials. The public rate of return of investment in CAST/UTech to the country is huge by any measure. This refutes arguments which maintain that tertiary education is mainly a private good.

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