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development and transformation, he said, “Sir Hilary [Beckles] was obviously the presiding genius behind a lot of that [building construction] and raised a lot of the money, but there was a whole team there. Andrew Lewis was a very important part of that. After he retired as campus registrar, he continued as director of planning, and so a lot of that was conceived during his time. Unfortunately, … Andrew is no longer with us, and that’s part of the institutional memory that has been lost; but Jackie [Wade] is here, and there are others who were involved in that who are still here as well. So, I hope we will make an effort to capture these memories.” To indicate the value of having such recordings, Professor Cobley said some of the historical information obtained for his presentation emanated from over 20 hours of recorded interviews with Sir Sidney Martin who retired in 1983. “Unfortunately, nobody thought to do that with Andrew Lewis, and I don’t think it was done with [the late Sir] Frank Alleyne
started from humble beginnings at the Deep Water Harbour as the College of Arts and Science on 12 October 1963 with 118 students. When it opened at the Cave Hill site in October 1967, there were just 21 full-time academic staff, two of whom were senior lecturers. Those figures have since mushroomed, with student enrolment reaching a record 8,841 in 2011-2012. Notably, continuous growth was registered during the first 50 years of operation. P rofessor Cobley’s delivery was buoyed by photographs and short video extracts. Aside from the narration, the photographs told a compelling story of the transformation that has taken place at the campus over the years. But even as he traced the history, Professor Cobley called for the individual faculties to better document their history and to interview individuals critical to their development to prevent the loss of information that is vital to the institution. Noting the campus’s remarkable physical
[former UWI economist]. Unfortunately, Sir Keith is not well enough to be interviewed; so great chunks of our institution’s history are absent because we didn’t follow up as we should have. I guess this is the moment for me to make a plea to all of the deans and faculties, the various units and so on, to think about your institutional history and try to keep a record because when it’s gone, it’s gone.” In the meantime, the historian said the theme for the 60 th anniversary celebration, Resolute and Resilient , aptly described the history and successes of the campus. u
Andrew Lewis (at right) at a Cave Hill graduation ceremony as Campus Registrar
CHILL NEWS 47
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