FORMER Jamaica Manufacturers’ Association (JMA) president Ray Hadeed was yesterday remembered as a champion in the country’s manufacturing industry and one who cared for and served people.

“[He] was a warm and caring [person],” JMA president Doreen Frankson said during her tribute to Hadeed at a thanksgiving service at the Sts Peter and Paul Church.

“He will be remembered as a pioneer in the manufacturing industry, father, mentor and friend,” she added.

Past president of the JMA, Charles Henderson-Davis, eulogised Hadeed as a person who always made time for people and one who was ready at all times to offer advice.

Henderson-Davis and former Prime Minister Edward Seaga both said that Hadeed was responsible for the boom in the Jamaican economy in the 1960s and 70s with his manufacturing operations that turned out quality furniture and appliances and provided employment for thousands of Jamaicans.

His manufacturing company, Serv-Wel, was the largest in the Caribbean in the 1970s and exported furniture and appliances to the US market, Henderson-Davis told the congregation, which included Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller, leader of the opposition Bruce Golding, and numerous other politicians and business leaders. He founded the Serv-Wel Group of Companies in the mid-1950s.

Hadeed was also instrumental in Jamaica’s signing of the Caribbean Free Trade Agreement (CARIFTA) in 1968. He 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.

In delivering the homily yesterday, Reverend Dr Robert Thompson urged politicians, business leaders and the wider society to follow the example of service that Hadeed established over his long and illustrious life.

“Ray’s legacy of service must be built on,” Thompson said. “It is because of his life of service why he has influenced so many people outside of his [sphere of business].”

Hadeed, a native of Syria, died of heart failure on Tuesday, April 24 at the age 87.

He is survived by three children and several grandchildren.

Yesterday, family members said that though he was gone, he would continue to live in their hearts.