MONTEGO BAY, St James – Newspaper publisher and Jamaica Observer columnist Lloyd B Smith yesterday called on the Government to honour the late Gladstone ‘Pop’ Lawrence in a meaningful way to commemorate his decades of service to Montego Bay and Jamaica.

Smith’s suggestion was that “an appropriate monument” be erected at the Montego Bay Boys and Girls Club and that the River Bay Road, where the club is situated, be renamed in Lawrence’s honour.

Smith, who was delivering a tribute on behalf of the directors of the club at Lawrence’s funeral service at the St James Parish Church, said the late club leader did more in his life than many who had received national honours.

Lawrence died on January 29 of a suspected heart attack and his funeral drew a wide cross section of mourners from Montego Bay, other parts of the island and from overseas.

Custos of St James, Clarence Nelson; Mayor of Montego Bay Councillor Noel Donaldson; member of parliament for North-West St James, Dr Horace Chang; president of the Montego Bay Chamber of Commerce and Industry Pauline Reid, and others were in attendance.

“Pop was never a big businessman, Pop was never a politician, Pop was never a drug don. He was simply ‘Pop’ and did more than many did in their lifetimes,” Smith said to loud applause.

Smith called for the recommended honours to be bestowed by later this year when the club will celebrate its 65th anniversary.

He said that Lawrence, who was among the first batch of boys to be accepted at the club when it opened in 1942 and went on to become its leader, had done more than either slave leader Sam Sharpe or former Governor-General Sir Howard Cooke in whose honours major landmarks in Montego Bay have been named.

The town square was renamed Sam Sharpe Square while a major highway has been named for Cooke.

Former Tourism Minister Francis Tulloch represented the prime minister who, he said, was unavoidably absent. In her message, she said Lawrence was father to several generations and would be impossible to replace, and in due course she would meet with the immediate family and club directors to decide how best to honour him.

“If we had more men like Pop, [Montego Bay] would be a completely different place today. If we had more Pops around, this place would be a more peaceful place than it is today,” the prime minister’s message said. “It is time we start recognising those men like Pop in the respective communities.”

The Very Reverend Canon Justin Nembhard, who officiated at the service, said Lawrence had done his part in nation building and called on others who, he said, have the talent, know-how and resources but were sitting on them, to do more.

There were many young people, Nembhard said, who had found themselves on the margins of society “crying out for rescue as they were without resources or role models with the know-how to take them forward”.

The country, he said, had to find ways of bringing these youngsters back into the main stream of society, as keeping them out would only “do more to ‘uglify’ the nation”.

Gladstone Lawrence’s widow, Anita (right), is consoled by family friend Pamela Curtis during the funeral service for her late husband yesterday.