Caribbean says farewell to Sir Dwight Venner

The Caribbean bade farewell to the longest serving governor of the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB), Sir Dwight Venner on Wednesday with St. Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves describing him as “among our best’.

Sir Dwight died here on December 22 after efforts to fly him out to the French island of Martinique for medical treatment failed. He was 70.

Gonsalves said that the St. Vincent-born Sir Dwight, who was a “Caribbean man to the core” was a superior pragmatist who compromised “without being compromising”.

He told the congregation at the Minor Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in the capital, that Sir Dwight, who left to mourn his wife and seven children, would be remembered “in our pages of history reserved for our titans.

Gonsalves, who taught at the University of the West Indies (UWI) with Sir Dwight, said he was a “majestic Caribbean Viking” who always implored that “we are not better than them but no one better than us.

“He was a philosopher, a student of political economy…he was among our best,” Gonsalves said of the economist.

In his eulogy, former director general of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS), Sir Vaughan Lewis, said the monetary economist had the ability to use his scientific knowledge in a practical manner as well as being able to persuade the ordinary person to understand the relevance of the ECCB. Read more

Source: The Daily Observer (Antigua & Barbuda)