IN our just over six decades as an independent nation, Jamaica has been blessed with outstanding citizens who have contributed in great measure to our reputation as a country that punches above its weight.

Those exemplary sons and daughters are found in almost every sector — sport, music, manufacturing, tourism, finance, academia, et al. Among that pantheon of greats is Mr Ryland Campbell, the educator who became one of this country’s foremost bankers; the man who, as our lead story on Sunday pointed out, “safely navigated Capital and Credit Merchant Bank through Jamaica’s most perilous financial sector crisis in the 1990s”.

Mr Campbell departed this life last Friday night, plunging the majority of Jamaicans who knew him into shock as we were not aware that he was ailing. His passing hit us hard at this newspaper because we regarded Mr Campbell as family, he having won the Jamaica Observer Business Leader Award for the year 2005, not surprisingly because he was indeed a Jamaican success story.

Mr Moses Jackson, the Observer’s first business editor and conceptualiser of the awards programme, explained it best in his reaction to Mr Campbell’s passing: “Mr Campbell was among the first wave of black Jamaicans who were able to unmoor from the middle-class complacency enabled by his education, and break into the risk-taking arena of big business.

“As a deep-rural boy, the apex of his ambition was being a teacher, which he achieved having graduated from Mico. But then, he refused to be trapped by that paradoxical comfort zone and launched into an entrepreneurial journey that ended in his co-founding and control of the very successful Capital and Credit Merchant Bank.”

Mr Jackson was spot on when he explained that Mr Campbell’s candidacy for the Observer Business Leader Award “was absolutely compelling, inasmuch as he redefined the possibility frontier for other Jamaicans seeking to escape the shackles of generational poverty”.

Coming from humble beginnings, Mr Campbell was born in the deep-rural farming village of Carmel in Westmoreland — the eldest of eight children who were all inculcated with strong religious and social values by their parents. His firm belief in the value of education drove his philanthropic spirit as he, without fanfare, assisted many people with their educational pursuits.

And while he never boasted about the help he gave to others, it was clear he drew deep satisfaction from the contribution he made to lifting men and women above their stations.

Mr Ryland Campbell was a man deeply devoted to his family, a man who, we are told, was “obsessively protective of his children” and a calm leader of the Campbell clan.

He also had an unwavering commitment to the principles of truth, fairness, and justice, and was slow to anger.

Mr Ryland Campbell’s spirit will live on, not only in those who loved him, but in those who have benefited from his sterling contribution to Jamaica’s development for which he earned the national honour of Commander of the Order of Distinction in 2008.

While we mourn his passing, we draw inspiration from his life and give thanks that we had the benefit of his presence.