FORMER president of the Jamaica Manufacturers’ Association (JMA) Ray Hadeed died in hospital yesterday. He was 87.

Hadeed, who was a patient at the University Hospital of the West Indies, suffered complications related to congestive heart failure and died early in the morning, family members confirmed.

Yesterday, two of Hadeed’s three children, son Russell and daughter Frances Awn, expressed shock at news of the entrepreneur’s passing. They both said they were expecting their father would this week be discharged from hospital, where he had been admitted for little over a week.

“He has been ill on and off for a while but he had been getting better. We actually thought he was coming home today (yesterday),” Awn told the Observer. “It’s very devastating… It’s a very great loss. Everybody is very upset,” she added.

Russell, who, since his father’s latest bout of illness, had been operating the Serv-Wel Group of Companies which his father founded in the mid-1950s, was equally affected.

“I never expected it to happen so suddenly,” he said. His father, he said, had been in hospital on several occasions but that he had always recovered. “He seemed invincible. I thought this time that he would have come home,” Russell said amid quiet sobs.

Awn described her father as family-oriented who “loved his children and grandchildren”. She said, too, that the businessman was a “great supporter of people in need” and that he gave a lot to the Kingston 11 community which was home to Serv-Wel.

“He’s the most positive thinker I have ever known. No challenge was too great for him; he never took no for an answer. He was always determined to…(and) had the uncanny ability to solve problems,” added Russell.

The JMA, in a statement yesterday, remembered Hadeed for his “bold, visionary and practical” leadership which led to Jamaica’s signing of the Caribbean Free Trade Agreement (CARIFTA) in 1968.

“The Caribbean Community and in particular, its manufacturing sector, has lost a visionary. The JMA will certainly miss Ray Hadeed’s unwavering commitment and tireless efforts to promote locally-made products, stimulate entrepreneurship and strengthen the industrial sector to take its place as the engine of growth in the Jamaican economy,” said the JMA.

Industry Minister Phillip Paulwell, in hailing the late manufacturer, said Jamaica had lost a giant of a man, an industrial icon and a true patriot.

“.Without a doubt, Ray Hadeed was a die-hard manufacturer. He lived and breathed manufacturing and made no secret of his passionately held view that manufacturing holds the key to the country’s future,” said Paulwell.

Meanwhile, Bruce Golding, leader of the Jamaica Labour Party, of which Russell Hadeed is campaign manager, praised the leadership that was provided by the elder Hadeed to the manufacturing sector.

“It was during his leadership that the manufacturing sector accounted for as much as 25 per cent of Gross Domestic Product and provided jobs for over 100,000 persons,” a statement from the party’s Belmont Road headquarters quoted Golding.

Ray Hadeed served as JMA president between 1966 and 1970 and was made a life director of the association. He also served as vice-chairman of the Port Authority of Jamaica and was on the board of the Jamaica Industrial Development Corporation.

A justice of the peace, he was recognised by the Jamaican government for his pioneering service in the area of manufacturing and was awarded the Order of Distinction (Commander class) in 2003. Three years later, he was again honoured for his contributions to the manufacturing sector and was awarded the Order of Jamaica.

In April 2005, Hadeed was presented with the Jamaica Observer’s lifetime award for his contribution to business development in the country.

Also mourning Ray’s death is his other daughter Yvonne Reynolds and his three grandchildren. His wife Rose passed away in 2000.