Mr. Basdeo Panday, Hon. Prime Minister, and Mrs. Oma Panday, Mr. Patrick Manning, Hon. Leader of the Opposition, other Parliamentary Representatives, Your Grace, the Archbishop of Port of Spain, Bishop Mendes, Bro. Steven Gorman, Superior General of the Presentation Brothers, Bro. Donatus Brazil, Provincial Superior of the West Indies and Canada, Bro. Michael Samuel, Principal of Presentation College, Members of the Clergy and Rev. Sisters, Staff of Presentation College, Colleagues, Parents, students, friends - I would like to sincerely thank the organizers for allowing me to address this distinguished gathering.

I will never be a 'past student' of Presentation, as the programme has indicated. "Grandfather though I am," I will always remain a student of the Brothers" because they have so much to teach anyone who wants to learn and who cares to listen and observe. As far as I am concerned, the programme description really means that I am no longer a student at Presentation College, San Fernando.

An occasion of this magnitude affords one the opportunity to look back in order to know how to go forward. I will use as an illustration the symbolic and mythical African bird, Sankofa, which continues to look backwards even as it goes forward. In looking back at the wonderful fifty years of service which those exemplary men, the Presentation Brothers, have given to San Fernando, the South and Trinidad and Tobago as a whole, I recall the life and witness of the former Archbishop of Port of Spain, Count Finbar Ryan, 'of happiest memory'. Archbishop Ryan, in November 1945, invited the Presentation Brothers to come to the West Indies to undertake secondary education in his archdiocese. The Archbishop, a man of tremendous insight, vision, and love for the people of the Caribbean, was not comfortable with the direction in which post World War II politics was heading. He felt this way because potential political leaders of the area seemed uncomfortably close to Marxist ideology which, given half a chance, they were willing to impose on the region. When the context of the Cold War of the 1940s and 1950s is taken into consideration, this analysis was not a matter of paranoia, but a realistic and wise interpretation of the period.

It gives me the greatest pleasure to pay tribute to the four Irish pioneers, Bros. Livinus Kelly, Anselm Callaghan, Ignatius Flahive, and Fergus Griffin who, in January 1948, established Presentation College, San Fernando. I was fortunate enough to have sat at the feet of each one of them while I was a pupil at the College. They proved to be dedicated, humble, learned, loving and just men who made such a positive impression on their students that, some fifty years afterwards, that impression has remained fresh in the minds of those students. Not only San
Fernando, but the entire country has been most fortunate to have had those Brothers as pioneers because their successors, somehow, have been able to maintain the very high standards of service which they established from the beginning.

I unhesitatingly shower praise on the Benedictine Fathers, Parish Priests of San Fernando who, under very difficult circumstances, had done excellent work as educators. In 1930, they established and ran St. Benedict College, the administration of which the Brothers assumed in 1948. How can I neglect to sing the praises of the San Fernando Community of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Cluny, who, like their counterparts in Grenada and St. Lucia, were more than generous as they helped the newcomers from Ireland to adjust to the totally foreign environment of San Fernando.

And what an adjustment it turned out to be. The Presentation Brothers not only fitted into San Fernando extremely well, but they also became de facto, if not de iure, citizens of Trinidad and Tobago. The people with whom they came into contact often forgot that they were not born in the country. This blending with the people combined with other factors to make the Brothers and Presentation College irrevocably loved and appreciated by their students. This feeling goes beyond the traditional affection which most individuals show towards their alma mater. It is special, as many alumni of other colleges have observed and have pointed out, on innumerable occasions, to the speaker and other graduates of Presentation College.

The outstanding performance of my alma mater, in a few years after the arrival of the Brothers, changed for the better the academic landscape of Trinidad and Tobago. The stranglehold which the northern colleges had on House and Island Scholarships, as well as on the Jerningham Silver and Gold Medals was brought to a permanent end. San Fernando and the South, with Presentation College far in the lead, now enjoyed their place in the academic sun. By the time the College celebrated its Silver Anniversary in 1973, it had become "the leading secondary school in Trinidad and Tobago, establishing all kinds of records, academic and otherwise, in the process. In addition, not only has it produced two of the nation's five Prime Ministers, but it has also produced other leaders who stand out in fields such as education, government service, medicine, law, religion, industry, and business, both at home and abroad.

While all those achievements are commendable, they do not represent the reason why the Brothers came to Trinidad. Their '1mission" was, still is, and always must be both "noble" and "apostolic". That is why they came to the Caribbean. This purpose was clearly stated in one of the earliest and most important documents concerning their establishment here. The Brothers came to impart a Catholic Education, the main purpose of which is to teach pupils how to save their soul. It cannot be said too often that this is the primary purpose and end of education, as far as Roman Catholics are concerned. While it is fine to win scholarships, medals and the like (and Presentation College does that better than anyone else), if students are not instructed with that goal in mind, the mission ceases to be "noble" or "apostolic". To put it bluntly, if such a situation is the case, the mission has failed for, as Jesus has asked, "What does it profit a man, if he gains the whole world and suffers the loss of his soul?" The correct answer to that question is the basis of any education system that calls itself Catholic.

Presentation College has NOT lost track of its mission. I am thinking in terms of the future especially as the number of Brothers on the College staff has been very small in recent times, and the prospects regarding vocations are not as encouraging as they could be and must be. I throw out this challenge to this widely representative audience to pray to God and his Blessed Mother to correct this situation because "the vineyard is overflowing but the labourers are few."
Even though Presentation College was, is, and must remain a Catholic secondary school, the Brothers never prevented anyone from becoming a student at the school because such a person belonged to another religion. Nor have they ever tried to "force Catholicism down the throats of anyone." To their eternal credit, these good men organized the daily timetable of the school in such a way that any pupil, who did not wish to attend Religious Instruction classes, was free not to do so. Furthermore, they allowed other religious groups, including non Christians, to celebrate and observe their important occasions on College property. This type of tolerance and broadmindedness which, unfortunately, is not always reciprocated, is one of the hall marks of those exemplary gentlemen belonging to the Order of the Presentation Brothers.

In conclusion I want to thank the Brothers for the "outstanding and distinguished" service they have given to Trinidad and Tobago, as well as to the entire West Indies, for fifty years. In doing so, I feel quite certain that I have accurately expressed the sentiments of the alumni of the College, as well as of the people of San Fernando in particular and Trinidad and Tobago in general. It gives me particular satisfaction to do so at this time because many of the Brothers are still alive and, therefore, are able to hear directly from the people, whom they served so well, how greatly they are loved and appreciated. To drive home this point, I end by reciting a poem which explains that human beings just "cannot read their tombstone when they are dead."

"If with pleasure you are viewing any work that I am doing

If you love me or even like me, tell me now.

Don't withhold your approbation until the Parish Priest makes oration.

For no matter how you shout it, I wouldn't really care about it,

I will not know how many tear drops you have shed,

So if you think some praise is due me, now is the time to slip it to me,

For I cannot read my tombstone when I'm dead."