FORTIS pride surged in March 2022 when the American Government announced that it had confirmed Jamaican-born N Nickolas Perry, a Kingston College (KC) old boy, as the next US ambassador to Jamaica.

Perry was already known to many KC old boys as he had supported many of their fund-raising events in New York where he served as State Assemblyman for three decades.

After he began his tour of duty in Jamaica Perry attended many of KC’s matches in the schoolboy football competition and has been a staple at the annual ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys’ and Girls’ Athletics Championships, cheering on his alma mater.

“I have fond memories [of KC] but, more than anything else, I developed my competitiveness and I discovered that I was lacking in some talents,” he responded when the Jamaica Observer asked him about his years at KC in an exclusive interview late last month.

“I didn’t rise to the level of the competitiveness in track and field and other sports so I paid attention to what I knew I have as an asset; my mother was very musically inclined and she participated in the church choir — she was an organist — and that attracted me to singing,” he said, then revealed that he was a member of the famed Kingston College Chapel Choir.

He joined the choir as a treble but his voice was at the point of changing in vocal range so shortly after, he became a tenor.

“I moved up to a tenor very quickly and that’s where I excelled,” he said, pointing out that at the time the choir was under the direction of Barry Davis who was ably assisted by Douglas Forrest, the man regarded by many old boys as one of the best principals to have run the school.

Asked what he did after leaving school Perry, who grew up in Whitfield Town and Rose Town in St Andrew, said, “I walked around for a couple of months just enjoying myself and looking for work.”

He had an interest in studying law, and on learning that he could get valuable experience as an apprentice at a law firm, he looked in that direction.

“I learned that you could get hired, and they would train you, and you’ll gradually get to where you can take the test” to enter law school at The University of the West Indies’ Cave Hill campus in Barbados.

But then came a job opportunity at Bustamante Industrial Trade Union (BITU).

“I accepted that position, and that’s the only job I ever had working in Jamaica,” said Perry who left Jamaica in 1971 for the United States on a quest to get into university.

He said that at BITU he was being trained as a labour organiser. “I was there for two years learning just the whole scope of the union — dues collection system, all the other functions — and occasionally going out to a site where they might have some labour action, and would meet some people there,” he explained.

He found the trade union experience “exciting”, he said, pointing out that it was during the period when trade union stalwarts Pearnel Charles, Dwight Nelson and Errol Anderson were there.

“They were young, very active, successful union leaders at that time so I had good role models that I could aspire to be like. I found them impressive. I think Dwight Nelson was the youngest one, he was just about my age, so we used to hang out and learn from each other,” Perry said.