Remembrance for the Most Hon. Sir Howard Cooke former Governor-General

National Heroes Day, October 2005, at the Award of Honours,

Lady Cooke whispered to me –

“Howard will be 90 next month – but believe me, the man is no ordinary 90.”

There was no need to enquire what she meant.  For by any test or measure –  irrespective of the sphere or criteria for judgment – Howard Felix Hanlan Cooke was indeed no ordinary man.   He was extraordinary – as a nation builder, a teacher, a community leader, a mentor, a preacher, a father and an exceptional human being.

He was a mentor for life.

When he began his earthly sojourn, he was to share space and time with a small number of persons, who had been born into slavery.   So the legacy of centuries of human exploitation was a part of the actuality of his earliest years.

THE FORMATIVE YEARS 

Up to age 11, the young Howard indulged in his favourite pastimes – horseback riding, marbles and as a pugilist.   He displayed a tendency to rebelliousness which led him to do everything else except attend school regularly.   In desperation, his mother packed him off to Grange Hill Elementary School, where he became one of twelve boys boarding with the Headmaster, Frank Theophilus Sinclair.

With Teacher Sinclair as mentor and father figure, young Howard began devoting his intellect and energy to a mastery of academics, agriculture and the performing arts.

In January 1933, Howard Cooke made his way to Kingston, one of the 120 hopefuls, fiercely competing for 20 spaces only, who would be put through a grueling two-day written and oral examination.   He emerged at the top of that batch and entered The Mico, as a confident, articulate, academically competent young man, nurtured in Christian values with a love for rural Jamaica…READ MORE

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