Prof. Nettleford with NJ Council Official Elsie Dublin-Foster(l) & Jamaica Counsulate General Geneieve Metzger-Brown at the Caribbean American Business Assoc. Gala in 2008Nettleford died at 8 o`clock last night in the George Washington Hospital. He was 76, just hours shy of his 77th birthday.
Nettleford suffered a heart attack last Wednesday while on a fundraising trip for the University of the West Indies (UWI). Nettleford fell in his hotel room bathroom after suffering the heart attack and was found later after colleagues did not see him return. He reportedly never regained consciousness.
A Jamaican scholar, social critic and choreographer; Nettleford was a recipient of the 1957 Rhodes Scholarship to Oriel College, Oxford, he returned to Jamaica in the early 1960's taking a position at the University of the West Indies. There, he first came to attention as a co-author (with M.G. Smith and Roy Augier) of a groundbreaking study of the Rastafari movement in 1961. In 1963 he founded the National Dance Theatre Company of Jamaica, an ensemble which incorporated traditional Jamaican music and dance into a formal ballet repertoire.
Nettleford had also been the artistic director for the University Singers of the University of the West Indies, Mona campus in Jamaica for twenty plus years. He collaborated with Noel Dexter the musical director to create 'choral theatre' with the University Singers.
His recoginition as a social critic and historian began when he wrote a collection of essays Mirror, Mirror published in 1969 and his editing and compiling of the speeches and writings of Norman Manley, Manley and the New Jamaica, in 1971. In 1968, Nettleford took over direction of the School for Continuing Studies at the UWI followed by the Extra-Mural Department. In 1975, the Jamaican state recognized his cultural and scholarly achievements by awarding him the Order of Merit. In 1996, he became Vice-Chancellor of the UWI, and held that office until 2004, when he was succeeded by E. Nigel Harris of Guyana.
I had the chance to interview Prof. Nettleford at the event he's pictured at above, it was a most enjoyable 30 minutes of one-on-one conversation with someone who still had much of his wisdom and practicality with us. Our community has lost a stalwart and we must ensure that his legacy lives on for the difference he made in many lives and the history he established to teach many more in those coming behind.
ReplyDeleteRest In Peace Prof. Rex.
From the University of the West Indies:
ReplyDeleteIssued: Tuesday, February 2, 2010 For Release: Immediately
DEATH OF PROFESSOR THE HON REX NETTLEFORD, OM, FIJ, OCC
The entire University of the West Indies community is devastated by the loss of the colossal Caribbean cultural icon, Professor the Honourable Rex Nettleford. Save for the three years he spent as a Rhodes Scholar at Oriel College, Oxford, Rex Nettleford has lived his entire adult life at and for The University of the West Indies. This life-long association with UWI began in 1953 when he entered the then University College of the West Indies to read for a degree in History. He returned immediately after completing the MPhil in Political Science at Oxford and, at the prompting of UWI Founding Father, Sir Philip Sherlock, took up the challenge of widening the reach of the still fledgling institution through the Department of Extra-Mural Studies, which took him to Trinidad and Guyana as Staff Tutor for the Eastern Caribbean.
Nettleford’s life has been seamlessly intertwined with that of the University of the West Indies. At every stage in the growth and development of the institution his quiet, self-effacing leadership could be discerned. He served in this way five Vice Chancellors – Sir Arthur Lewis; his mentor, Sir Philip Sherlock; Sir Roy Marshall, Mr A.Z. Preston and Sir Alister McIntyre – until he himself took up the mantle in 1998. Even after his official ‘retirement’ in 2004 Professor Nettleford continued to serve in the capacity of Vice-Chancellor Emeritus, Professor of Cultural Studies and unofficial advisor to current Vice-Chancellor, Professor E. Nigel Harris.
His intellectual gifts and wise counsel have been generously shared with many heads of Government, not only in Jamaica, but throughout the Caribbean and beyond. Professor Nettleford has been consulted by just about every Government in the Caribbean region (including the non-English speaking countries) and has served in an advisory capacity to several international organisations, including CARICOM, the Organisation of American States, UNESCO, the ILO, the World Bank and the International Development Research Council (IDRC) of which he is a founding director. His gift of erudition, combined with his inability to decline appeals for contributions of his talent in this area, resulted in his maintenance of a speaking schedule that would daunt normal mortals. He has written several books and contributed chapters to many more. The texts of his speeches, covering a wide range of topics, provide enough material for many more fine books.
Although Rex Nettleford is perhaps best known for his genius as a dancer and choreographer – he was co-founder and Artistic Director of the acclaimed National Dance Theatre Company of Jamaica – it is as an intellectual and academic leader that the University has known him. He has been conferred with numerous academic honours from many universities and received from the Government of Jamaica the highest national award which a civilian can earn – The Order of Merit. He is recipient of the Order of the Caribbean Community (OCC); the Gold Musgrave Medal from the Institute of Jamaica, of which he was also named Honorary Fellow; The Chancellor’s Medal (UWI); the UWI Alumni Pelican Award; The Living Legend Award from the Black Arts Festival in Atlanta, USA and The Zora Neal Hurston/Paul Robeson Award from the National Council for Black Studies, among many others.
The Rhodes Trust, in celebration of its Centenary in 2004, established the Rex Nettleford Prize in Cultural Studies, tenable at The University of the West Indies – a fitting and lasting accolade which will ensure that his name and work will live on in perpetuity. Rex Nettleford’s life and career were indeed inseparable from the University of the West Indies and he will never, never be forgotten.
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