St Elmo Reid remembered as loyal and compassionate
St Elmo Reid, Anglican priest and educator, was on Saturday remembered as a man of great compassion and loyalty, who was a martinet for the use of proper English.
Chief Justice Lensley Wolf and St Catherine custos Sophie Azan were among hundreds of mourners who crammed into the cathedral in Spanish Town to celebrate Reid’s life and work.
Reid, 85, passed away last week after a long illness.
On Saturday, his family remembered him as being a meticulous and calculated person, who was a walking Oxford dictionary.
This could be attributed to the fact that he spent 37 years in the classroom, and served as principal at a number of all-age schools in Clarendon, Westmoreland, Hanover and St Catherine.
But it was at Crescent All-Age in Spanish Town, St Catherine, where he taught for a decade, that he was recognised for his excellent work of preparing students to sit the Common Entrance Examination [now Grade Six Achievement Test]. Reid’s students generally got good passes, recording up to 85 per cent passes in any given year.
His retirement from the classroom in 1985 brought him closer to religion. In 1999 he entered the Anglican priesthood, was ordained and ministered at the cathedral before retiring in 2003.
On Saturday, former Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA) president Victor Edwards said his former colleague was an energetic and effervescent character. He also noted that Reid was a persistent and insistent educator, who was dogmatic and unyielding on a point of argument.
Edwards told the mourners who overflowed the church that Reid placed an indelible stamp on Crescent All-Age School, through students’ high performance in academics.
“He contributed tremendously to the revolution of education in Jamaica. As a member of the JTA general council, his involvement in the Junior Achievement programme for high schools, the In-service Teacher Education and Training (ISTET) programme and the 4-H movement (which he promoted strongly), his belief in the notion of self-education and self-improvement are monuments to his career achievements,” Edwards said.
The St Catherine Lay Magistrates’ Association eulogised Reid, who served as a justice of the peace for 26 years, as a man of great compassion and loyalty, who was a martinet for the use of proper English. He was remembered most of all for his “outspoken contempt” for indiscipline and the fact that he was “fearless” in his criticisms.
He is survived by wife Murdell and five children.
The homily was given by the bishop of Jamaica Rev Dr Alfred Reid, and interment followed at the Dovecot Memorial Park.