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News of the death of former University of Guyana (UG) Vice Chancellor, Professor Dennis Craig has stunned the education community. Both Education Minister Dr Henry Jeffrey and UG Deputy Vice -Chancellor, Al Creighton expressed shock at the news of his death.
Jeffrey described Craig as a distinguished educator of the Caribbean and recalled that he first came into contact with him at the University of Guyana in the late 1980s. "We had our differences, but there is no doubt that Prof Craig had a definitive, clear and modern vision of the University of Guyana."
He recalled too that when Craig resigned as Vice- Chancellor it was not the end of his involvement with education in Guyana or the Ministry of Education.
At his death he was a consultant to the Guyana Basic Education Teacher Training (GBETT) project and only recently had made two presentations and also presented a report on the teaching of English as a second language. "The entire ministry, but particularly the GBETT team, greeted his death with much surprise and sorrow."
Creighton recalled that Craig had made his greatest contribution to UG as its Vice- Chancellor during the six years he served in that post. But he said Craig's association with UG pre-dated his appointment as Vice-Chancellor as he had been an external examiner to the Faculty of Arts as well as an adviser under the TOCTEN programme to the English Department, reviewing its offerings.
He recalled too that Craig had also made a contribution to work at the university in Linguistics Research as well as in the field of education where he contributed to the development of research in the field.
Creighton also recalled even after he resigned as Vice- Chancellor, Craig continued to assist UG in a number of areas and provided assistance to the present Vice-Chancellor, Professor James Rose in various areas. He said he was sure Dr Rose would feel the vacuum left by his passing as well as the university because of the various areas with which he worked with its staff.
Creighton also remarked on Craig's contribution to the field of literature, recalling that he was a published poet and in 1998 had won the Guyana Prize for Literature for a First Book of Poetry.
On behalf of the university and his own behalf, Creighton offered his deepest condolences to Craig's widow, Professor Zelene Jones, who had also served the university for a number of years and had contributed to the development of research in education. With her late husband they had started a journal which provided an additional outlet for publication of the work of the department.