Dear Editor,

Professor Rex Nettleford, of blessed memory, once described recently departed Noel Dexter to me in personal communication as “a beautiful spirit that lives with dignity, purpose, honour and calmness”.

He was right.

The former musical director par excellence at The University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona, epitomised all these noble characteristics, and more, as he lived his life with a self-effacing manner and a clear approach to his task.

I came to know him following his participation, by his masterful playing of the church organ, in the Mona Chapel to the accompanying repertoire of hymns at the remembrance service for my late brother, academician and criminologist Dr Kenneth “Ken” Pryce of The UWI, St Augustine, Trinidad, in September 1987. Over the years our interactions grew as colleagues in the employ of The UWI and outside the walls of the university. I soon discovered that he was never far from the pulsating attraction of local art, theatre, dance, and music. Along with his considerable promotional musical skills and deep and learned understanding of music, he also had a knack for knowing the happenstances in the lives of those he cared about and tutored, but was never vulgarly intrusive. Indeed, he was always “in it” but not “of it”. He wasn’t a bird of prey.

More importantly, though, Noel Dexter did not regard himself as a genius of his craft by any stretch of the imagination, even if others saw him as such. He merely insisted, so far as my experience of him went, that his music and conducting met the requirement that they be filled with authenticity and local colour. As such, I am certain that he shall be remembered among our great educators, advocates, and collaborators who wrote and spoke best about the things they have made most their own.

I wish to express my deep sympathy to his family, relatives, and friends in their great loss. The sadness which I feel for the loss of a very generous and patriotic Jamaican is sufficient to make me know how much they must be suffering by the ending of the earthly journey of an amiable son of Jamaica; a man of whom I think it may be truly said that no one knew him who does not now lament him.

Peace be with you, Noel.

Everton Pryce

lxpryc@yahoo.com