The nation, led by President Bharrat Jagdeo, yesterday bade farewell to former Prime Minister Dr Ptolemy Alexander Reid OE, MRCVS, DVM, with a thanksgiving service at St George’s Cathedral.

President Jagdeo followed the casket into the cathedral, which was borne by a number of the PNCR’s women activists, with the officiating clergy, including the Anglican Bishop of Guyana, Rt Rev Randolph George, a stern critic of the PNC administration but whose presence was perceived to be in recognition of Dr Reid’s 60 years as a lay preacher. Rector of St George’s, Rev Terry Davis was also in attendance.

Among the dignitaries in the congregation were Prime Minister Sam Hinds; Education Minister, Dr Henry Jeffrey who in his days in the PNC was known as “Ptolo’s boy;” PPP/C general secretary, Donald Ramotar; the British High Commissioner, Stephen Hiscock; the Canadian High Commissioner, Serge Marcoux; and the US Ambassador to Guyana, Roland Bullen. Also in attendance was former Speaker of the National Assembly Sase Narain; former Ministers in the PNC administration Neville Bissember, Vibart Parvattan, Jeffrey Thomas, and Yvonne Harewood-Benn. Also present were former Vice President and PNC Chairman Cammie Ramsaroop; former Prime Minister and PNC Deputy Leader and now GGG head, Mayor Hamilton Green; Deputy Mayor Robert Williams, as well as former PNC General Secretary, Ranji Chandisingh, who succeeded Reid as General Secretary when he retired in 1984. Present too was long-time party stalwart and World War I and II veteran, Cecil Cunha, as well as the countless old and not-so-old party faithful who were energised by Dr Reid’s dictum of doing, not talking.

Speakers from the PPP and PNC paid Dr Reid glowing tributes, prompting PNCR chairman, Vincent Alexander to comment that he hoped that the time would soon come when the PPP and the PNCR would recognise their living strengths and work together for the development of the country. Alexander remarked that he was privileged to hear in his lifetime the PNC pay glowing tribute to Dr Jagan and the PPP pay glowing tribute to former President and PNC leader, Desmond Hoyte, and now Dr Reid.

Alexander’s remarks came at the end of an hour-long session during which persons from every walk of life paid tribute to Dr Reid.

In his tribute, PNCR leader Robert Corbin recalled rallying phrases coined by Dr Reid. “Being Steadfast in Season and Out of Season,” Dr Reid coined when at one time the PNC was in difficulty; and when it was mourning the death of its founder-leader, Forbes Burnham, “For Construction There Must be Destruction” was the consoling and comforting phrase he gave the party faithful.

Corbin said that if he followed Dr Reid’s example and selected one word around which his presentation on Dr Reid’s contribution could be exemplified that word would be dedication. He said that dedication was what characterised his life as teacher, veterinarian, husband and father, politician and parliamentarian.

Corbin also recalled the features of Dr Reid’s life during which he rose from humble beginnings in Dartmouth village on the Essequibo Coast to serve in the highest echelons in the country as well as walk with kings and presidents without losing that common, humble touch.

Prime Minister Hinds paid tribute on behalf of the government and said that Dr Reid’s rise from humble beginnings should be an inspiration to all young Guyanese. He said Dr Reid had made his mark on the nation and would be long remembered for his contribution.

Dr Jeffrey observed that his friend and former General Secretary lived by unshakeable principles in which moral relativism had no place. He recalled him being a severe taskmaster but also as one who was interested in his life. According to him, Dr Reid, having a scientific bent, believed that one should become involved in learning by doing.

Eulogising his father, Dr Herman Reid, himself a veterinarian and graduate of his father’s alma mater, Tuskegee Institute, recalled the humble beginnings of his father who went to school barefoot until his father’s elder sister bought him a pair of shoes. He said this father did all the things expected of a child in his parents’ economic situation - catch fish in the canals for their meals, cut cane, plant rice, and all the other tasks in which a child was expected to assist his parents.

He recalled his father’s achievements at the Teachers’ Training College where his batch mates were some of the most outstanding stalwarts in the field of education, some dead some still alive - Gladstone Fox, Olga Bone, Cecilene Baird, Cleveland Hamilton, and Hilton Lewis.

Herman also recalled his father’s sojourn at Tuskegee, the first student from South America to be admitted to the school, his holiday jobs in the steel mills of Chicago, as well as his time in Saskatchewan, Canada, where he first practised his profession and where he was a rarity, a black professional at a time when black people were mainly bell boys, cooks and entertainers.

At the end of the hour-long service the body was borne from the cathedral by among others, Corbin, Chandisingh, Ramsaroop, Green and Winston Murray, the PNCR parliamentary frontbencher and chairman of the Public Accounts Committee. From the cathedral, the cortege proceeded to the PNCR’s Congress Place headquarters where the body lay in state to allow those party faithful who had not had the opportunity to do so, to say farewell and pay their tributes.

While there, tributes came from the party’s representatives of most of the ten administrative regions, the Guyana Teachers’ Union, President’s College, the National Congress of Women, the Pan-African Movement, the African Cultural and Development Association (ACDA) and lastly, General Secretary of the party, Oscar Clarke.

In offering his tribute, Clarke stated: “We are going to carry on his legacy of hard work and sacrifice. We will take this country to the pinnacle.”

The body was taken from Congress Place to Ogle Airport from where it was to be flown to Hampton Court and then by road to Dartmouth where the people of Essequibo were to be given the opportunity to view the body and pay their last respects.

The body will be cremated at 11.55 am at the foreshore of L’Union village and the ashes will be buried in the compound of the Flora Nursery School, built on a plot of land Dr Reid’s mother once donated to the school.