MONTEGO Bay bade farewell to one of its outstanding sons, Canute Octavius Gordon, at a thanksgiving service held at the Calvary Baptist Church earlier this week.

Several times during the three-hour long service officiating minister, Reverend CS Reid, had to remind eulogisers to keep their presentations short. However, this proved difficult for most of the speakers who recalled, in glowing, animated terms, episodes from the illustrious life journey of ‘The Dean’, ‘Sir G’, ‘Marse Ken’.

Custos of St James and head of the Lay Magistrates in that parish, Clarence Nelson, led the list of nine persons, institutions and organisations that paid tribute to the veteran journalist, lay magistrate and co-opt member of the St James Parish Council. Custos Nelson recalled that he and Gordon were in the same batch of 12 Justices of the Peace (JPs) who were sworn-in on April 28, 1972. He spoke of Gordon’s conscientious approach to his duties as JP, and recounted the laborious hours he spent studying chapters of the Lay Magistrates Act in order to improve his efficiency in dispensing justice at the Montego Bay Petty Session court.

In his candid presentation, Deacon of Calvary Baptist Church, T K Allen, described Gordon as “a patriotic, outstanding Jamaican, who represented all that is good about his beloved Montego Bay.” According to him, Gordon was an excellent journalist who managed to walk the fine line between healthy pride and haughtiness.

“(He was) proud but not haughty, intelligent, bold, fearless, out-spoken but congenial. He bore no grudge nor rancour,” Allen said of the man who was a former deacon and a 50-year member of Calvary Baptist.

Former mayor of Montego Bay, Cecil Donaldson, who delivered the eulogy, traced his late friend’s life from birth at 30 Hart Street in Montego Bay, his boyhood with his guardian and grandmother, Goddie; and on through his years in Harlem, New York where he furthered his education and studied journalism before he returned to Jamaica in the 1940s.

Donaldson, who confessed to dubbing Gordon ‘the dean of the journalist corps in Western Jamaica’, said Gordon was a man with a passion for beauty.

“(He was) the most revered journalist from the west who did his job without fear or favour,” Donaldson recalled.

Among the awards Gordon received for his outstanding contribution to journalism were the 1978 Awards for Excellence from the St James Parish Council. In 1982 he received the first Life Membership of the Jamaica Association of Journalists, The Press Association Veteran Journalist Award in 1983 and the Order of Distinction in 1984.

Journalist and public relations consultant, Byron Balfour, who wept openly throughout his tribute, hailed his mentor as “a gregarious man who was the very soul of journalistic ethics and responsibility”.

Others who eulogised Gordon were his daughter Ena Gordon-Powell; longtime friend, Leslie Hylton; Leon Jackson for the Gleaner Company where Gordon worked for decades; Clinton Pickering on behalf of Rev Dr Mervin Stoddart, another of Gordon’s protégés; Dr Horace Chang on behalf of the Jamaica Labour Party, and Jacqueline Yapp-Williams.

Canute Gordon passed away at his Tate Street residence on Sunday, December 23, 2001 after a protracted battle with Alzheimer’s disease. He is survived by wife Daphne, sons Aubrey and Paul and daughter Ena.