Roy Collister remembered as a visionary defender

BY TANESHA MUNDLE

Sunday, April 25, 2010

ROY Collister, OJ, was lauded as a distinguished businessman who adopted Jamaica as his home and made significant contribution to the country's tax reform system.

Collister, who was recently conferred with the Order of Jamaica for his contribution to the business sector, passed away on April 16, after a long battle with illness. He was 75-years-old.

On Wednesday, family, friends and respected members of the business community along with government officials, including Leader of the Opposition Portia Simpson Miller and Delroy Chuck, gathered at St Andrew Parish Church to say their final farewell to Collister.

Philmore Ogle, former president of the Institute Chartered Accountants of Jamaica in a glowing tribute to Collister, described him as a 'visionary defender'.

"This visionary defender had a head for big success, coupled with a heart for small business. In business representative associations he cherished democracy and disliked oligarchy" he said.

Ogle highlighted Collister's contribution to the many different organisations where he served in varying capacities.

Collister served as president of the Jamaica Chamber of Commerce, president of the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica, president of the Caribbean Association of Industry and Commerce, and a member of the Industry Advisory Council on International Business Services, among others.

Among his many achievements, highlighted by Ogle, was his involvement with the exchange rate policy when he participated in a joint government/private sector negotiation with the International Monetary Fund.

He also accompanied former Prime Minister Michael Manley to Washington to negotiate with the IMF. Collister's involvement with the reform of the Jamaican tax system spanned four decades.

"His work resulted in the most sweeping reforms of the Jamaican tax system," Ogle said.

Collister was also remembered by his business partner, Allison Peart who he worked with at the Jamaican practice of the worldwide auditing and professional services firm, Ernst & Young, as a wonderful family man and devoted husband, who adored his wife, sons and grandchildren.

She also said he was a man of great character and treated others around him with love and respect.

"Professionally he gave selflessly, he never held back but shared generously and at all times wisely and he was ever diplomatic and never had a bad thing to say about anyone," she said "Roy's character was warm he had a very humble spirit. As we remember Roy let us cherish his memory and take it wherever we go."

While Arnold Foote, Collister's life-long friend, who read the remembrance described Collister as a "man of great integrity, humility, dedication and loyalty, a family man and a man of God".

Collister was born in Isle of Man In England. He received a distinction when he graduated from the University of Manchester with a BA in Commerce. He was a chartered accountant and a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Jamaica and the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.

He later migrated to Jamaica in 1959 and became a citizen in 1965.

"I met him shortly after he came to Jamaica and we became friends and I will always cherish the close friendship that we had and for that I thank God," Foote said.

"The quantity but quality in particularly of his service to Jamaica was a testimony to his commitment to his adopted country," Foote also stated.

Collister is a former chairman and chief executive officer of the Geddes Grant Group of Companies. He also worked at Courts Jamaica Limited, Amalgamated Distribution Company, Pan Jamaica Investment Trust and the First Jamaica Company.

Collister is survived by his wife, Sylvia, his two sons Keith and Paul and his grandchildren Riana and Alexis.

His body will be cremated at later date.

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