Law students remember smiling, keen Ingrid Brown
DURING the last three years of Ingrid Brown’s decade at the Jamaica Observer, she also studied at the Faculty of Law at the University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona.
She had recently completed her law degree at the institution with second class honours, and had been accepted at the Norman Manley Law School before her death at the University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI) last Thursday night.
The UWI Law Class of 2016 and the Norman Manley Law Class of 2018 remember Brown as a vocal presence and enthusiastic student, who was always willing to converse with her classmates.
Dr Konrad Lawson, a member of both classes, remembers Brown as “a very
keen and dedicated student, always focused and never wasting time”.
“She seemed to have made every minute of her time at Mona really count towards her goal,” Lawson said. The medical doctor, who shared Brown’s experience of maintaining a professional life along with legal studies, remembers her as always being punctual, among the first present in every class.
Another classmate, who did not work while studying for his degree, remembers asking Brown how she held such a demanding job and still managed to get better grades than many colleagues who did not have to strike the student/professional balance. He recalls that she laughed and humbly said: “I’m still working on it, to be honest.”
Brown played a supportive, ‘big sister-like’ role to her colleagues, many of them having entered the law programme fresh out of secondary school. While she spoke to everyone, Brown would often be seen at the front of the class with two younger female students astride her – working with them to figure out whatever fresh obstacle was posed by the particular legal course. Her strong academic performance paralleled a willingness to always participate and answer questions in class.
But, “she always wore a smile”, recalls classmate Markel Virgo, “…and she’d always offer something, some sort of advice or commentary on popular issues.”
“She was somebody who loved the law … (but) she was always willing to question the rationale behind the law,” Virgo said.
Such was her love for the law that she registered for Norman Manley Law School, despite her illness and continuing duties as associate editor – special assignment at the
Jamaica Observer.
When news of her passing reached the
Facebook group for the Class of 2016, colleagues described her as a “lovely spirit” while one wrote: “My heart is heavy right now and I am in shock! She was always smiling, always chatting up her classmates, this is just so sad.”
Brown is mourned by more than 200 colleagues who studied alongside her.
Last week, the Press Association of Jamaica (PAJ) sent condolences to Brown’s family, the
Jamaica Observer family and her friends.
The multiple-award-winning journalist served as secretary of the PAJ from 2012-2014, a task she performed with her trademark diligence. She also represented the PAJ on the board of the Jamaican Copyright Licensing Agency.
The PAJ noted that Brown began her journalism career in 1994, working at the now defunct
Jamaica Herald, and by 1995 had already won her first professional award from the PAJ for her human interest stories.
She also worked with
The Gleaner, and theJamaica Information Service, but most of her professional life was spent at the Jamaica Observer.
Apart from the PAJ awards for Best Feature story in 2008 and Best News Story for 2010, Brown also won awards from the Pan American Health Organisation and the Fair Play Awards.
The PAJ recalled that in 2011 she spoke at its World Press Freedom Day breakfast. She said, inter alia, the following:
“As journalists we must commit to performing our professional duties with intelligence, objectivity, accuracy and fairness. More important than having that front-page story or that leading item in the newscast is the commitment to ensure that the information being disseminated is accurate, true and fair to all parties concerned.
“As members of the fourth estate we have the awesome responsibility to inform, educate and entertain. But do we realise that information released in the public domain does not go away with an apology? We know that we Jamaicans are of the opinion that ‘if it no go so, then is near so’. And for those of us who had the privilege of growing up in small, rural communities we would have first-hand knowledge of how information first told about someone can take on a life of its own and is told far and wide.”
Added the PAJ: “Apart from her strong work ethic, and the high quality of her work, Ingrid was, quite simply, a sweet and wonderful person whom colleagues remember as a pleasure to work with.
“In this year in which the media fraternity has suffered loss after loss, Ingrid’s passing is yet another blow, yet another loss of an outstanding colleague and human being.”