Late Olympian remembered as warm, humble
Olympian Clifford Forbes, who died at age 65 at the University Hospital of the West Indies on Monday after a prolonged illness, has been described by his wife Joan as being “warm” and “forgiving” to both her and their 25-year-old daughter.
Mrs Forbes said her husband was always the first to move to quash any disagreement during their 26 years of marriage.
“(He was) very warm, very giving, the most loving person, the most forgiving person. In marriages people have quarrels, so I would quarrel and he would say nothing and then ask if I was finished and he would just move on,” she said, while noting that next month would have been their 27th anniversary.
Forbes, who was admitted in hospital on his last birthday, February 18, was a member of Jamaica’s 4×100 metres team that equalled and bettered the world record at the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico.
The other athletes were Michael Fray, Errol Stewart and Lennox Miller.
The quartet blazed a record-equalling 38.6 seconds in the heats and improved it to 38.3 in the semi-finals before being pushed out of medal contention in the final by the United States (world record 38.2), Cuba (38.3) and France, who were awarded third place despite clocking the same time, 38.4, as the Jamaicans.
Mrs Forbes revealed that his preferred sport was cricket until he discovered that he possessed natural talent in the world of athletics.
“Cricket was his first love in high school… that was his passion. Then he subsequently found that he had some talent in track and field,” she said, while adding that humility was one of his major attributes.
“He never talked much about his achievements. If there was something that he did he would be the last one to talk about it.”
After his days of active representation in the sport, Forbes performed as manager for teams to the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, Central America and Caribbean Games and Pan American Games. He was also a trainer for the national netball team.
Outside of sport, Forbes had administration duties at telecommunication company Cable And Wireless (now LIME) for a number of years and also helped the Jamaica Olympic Association (JOA) with preparation and planning for events.