February 2018


Issue Home >>

On Tuesday morning, the St. Augustine Campus Community of The University of the West Indies paid respect to their former Principal when staff, faculty, and students lined the way as the public cortège drove through the St. Augustine Campus, along a route that included the Max Richards Building – Faculty of Engineering, the JFK Undercroft, the Campus Principal's Office, and the Main Administration Building.

While Professor George Maxwell Richards, former President of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, belonged to the people of Trinidad and Tobago for the 10 years he served as its fourth President, we at the St. Augustine Campus consider that he belonged to us first and always will. He is ‘our’ Max. He was, quite coincidentally, the fourth Principal of the UWI St. Augustine Campus. He also served as Dean of Engineering from 1974 to 1979. Indeed, he was Dean when I graduated from that Faculty in 1978.

This year marks the 70-year milestone of The University of the West Indies. As one of only two regional universities globally, this institution has been completely committed to enhancing every aspect of Caribbean development and improving the well-being of the people of this region. And, as we mourn the passing of Professor George Maxwell Richards, we are mindful that he was also a scholar, a colleague, a leader and, most of all, an avowed patriot and lover of all things Trinidad and Tobago and Caribbean. He exemplified our 70 years of leadership and of service.

I have spoken to several colleagues and friends of Professor Richards, from former Campus Principals, administrative staff and lab technicians, and this tribute is truly a compendium and a representation of the feelings of our Campus Community.

Professor Max Richards was a thoughtful, fair-minded and approachable servant leader throughout his many years at The University of the West Indies, St. Augustine Campus. He came to academia from industry, and understood the vital connection between academic study and practical exposure and experience.

Professor Richards was one of a small group of engineers, including Professors Emeriti Ken Julien, Desmond Imbert, and Harry Phelps, who established the Faculty of Engineering, saving it from collapse soon after its birth when the UN-funded academics left en masse. They went on to grow the St. Augustine Campus’ Faculty of Engineering to national, regional, and international recognition as a top-class Faculty for educating engineers from the Caribbean and the wider world and a main driver of this region’s industrial development. It was during Professor Richards’ stint as Dean that the Faculty began its major infrastructural expansion.

Engineers are trained to be rational, yet innovative thinkers and to take managed risks. This training would come in handy when he became Pro Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the St. Augustine Campus from 1985 to 1996.

It was a financially challenging time. Yet he was the right man at the right time to steer our Campus in that period of financial hardship and general uncertainty of the late 1980s and early 1990s, with unfailing calm, affability, and good humour. Through remarkable efforts, ingenuity and risk-taking, Professor Richards not only ensured the relatively smooth continued operations of the Campus but, indeed, achieved growth.

His ability to engage the corporate sector through The UWI Development and Endowment Fund and to forge a unique brand for The UWI Fête has guaranteed its continued success for more than two decades. Even after retirement and as President of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, he continued to lend his esteem and support to us at The UWI.

During his stint as Principal, Professor Richards played a major role in establishing the UWI Institute of Business which later became the Arthur Lok Jack Graduate School of Business and is now the Arthur Lok Jack Global School of Business. He served as its first board chairman from 1989 to 1996. In keeping with his vision for the University he strove to establish the framework required to bridge the academia and practice in the word of business. The Max Richards Drive that leads to the main entrance at ALJGSB was so named for his invaluable contribution.

In 2003, the qualities I have enumerated above, his experience, and expertise, would give him the confidence to take up the mantle as this Republic’s first President without a law degree – serving two terms. His words at that second inauguration on March 17, 2008 were as indicative of the man as they were of his love for the country and, in particular, young people.

In committing to serve with ‘impartiality, independence, even-handedness, and objectivity’, Professor Max Richards also pointed out that the ‘underpinnings of strong statehood’ in Trinidad and Tobago were not as ‘sound’ as they should be especially in relation to the younger generations. A state, he said, ‘that has not been divided by war and famine and which fails to achieve its full potential is also a failed state’.

His charge to us then, as it surely must be now, is that this country must maximise all its opportunities and good fortune to survive and to grow.

On behalf of The University of the West Indies, particularly the St. Augustine Campus, I extend sincere condolences to his wife, Dr. Jean Ramjohn-Richards, and to his children, Mark and Maxine.

May his soul rest in peace.