NAME OF FEATURE | THE GLEANER | FRIDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2023 26 R. DANNY WILLIAMS TRIBUTE Remembering Danny Published September 21, 2023 THERE’S NOT much that I can add to the abundant praises, accolades and superlatives being offered to my fellow JC old boy, the Hon R. ‘Danny’Williams, who left us last week. I did not know Danny during his Life of Jamaica years, nor when he served as senator, junior minister, or minister of industry and commerce in the ‘70s. I only knew him through that one institution at 189 Old Hope Road that we had in common. I think it would be fair to say that until I was elected JCOBA (Jamaica College Old Boys Association) president in March 2014, Danny and I had never met. After all, for most of his years as an insurance pioneer, philanthropist and businessman extraordinaire, I was probably still in short pants playing marbles in school. So I only knew of him as another one of those accomplished men that attended my school. It was not until the tightly contested JCOBA elections of 2014 that I first exchanged words with Danny. I was a captain in the JDF at the time and was hardly impressed by anyone that I did not have to pay a salute to. So when I met him, I was not as slack-jawed as most people would have been when meeting a man of this stature and standing in the world. Don’t get me wrong. This is not meant as a slight to Danny in any way. On the contrary, the only reason I wasn’t awestruck was simply because he would not allow me to be. So humble, affable, genuine and easy-going was he, that a blind man overhearing our conversation would probably wonder if we were in first form together. Danny asked me about my years at JC, about my army career, and interestingly, about the soup in Up Park Camp. That was the first time I was hearing anyone refer to that mess hall concoction as soup, but I smiled and nodded. He certainly knew how to make you feel like you were the only person in the room. I was told that Danny had his favourite in that three-horse election, and I wasn’t it. I worried if his reach and influence would tip the scales in favour of one of my opponents, but instead, he sat calmly, contributed neutrally, and voted publicly – just not for me. Coming out victorious in that election, I began to wonder how difficult it was going to be to win over his support. After all, Jamaican politics almost mandates that you dislike and oppose your opponent, at least until the next election rolls around. So imagine my surprise when the following Monday morning, I got a call from Danny saying he wanted us to meet. At the time, he was head of the JC Foundation and had spearheaded the transformation process that the school was going through, so it made sense that we would need to speak. As I began to mentally prepare for the treacherous journey through Irish Town’s winding roads, I was again surprised when he said, “OK, I’ll be there at noon. And make sure they have soup.” Now, don’t take this lightly. The fact that Danny would leave his comfortable home to climb down to Up Park Camp to see me, rather than summon me to his quarters, spoke volumes about the kind of man he was. It didn’t matter to him that his candidate had lost. What was most important now was the work that needed to be done. It also didn’t matter that I was at least three decades his junior. Having the meeting in Up Park Camp meant that I couldn’t give that all-purpose PLEASE SEE DANNY, 28 R. Danny Williams Memorial Service inside the Karl Hendrickson Auditorium, Jamaica College, on Saturday, October 7, 2023.
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