THE chapel at The University of the West Indies, Mona, was filled yesterday with members of the artistic community as they gathered to pay their final respects to artist, teacher and musician Cecil Harvey Cooper.

Prime Minister Andrew Holness, who read the first lesson, and culture minister Olivia ‘Babsy’ Grange headed the list of dignitaries at the thanksgiving service.

The two-and-a-half-hour-long service opened with a string of musical tributes to the late tenor. Carole Reid with I Want Jesus to Walk With Me; Commander John McFarlane delivered John Denver’s You Fill Up My Senses; Keisha Patterson offered You’ll Never Walk Alone; and the University Singers performed the anthem Give Me Wings. However, the most touching moment was a performance of My Way by Dem by Three Jamaican Tenors. This group started 12 years ago and featured David Reid, Steve Higgins and Cooper. Higgins said he had promised Cooper to keep the trio going and had roped in Rory Baugh and Commander John McFarlane. For this performance it was Baugh, Higgins and Cooper’s vocals cleverly mixed into the track. That would not be the last time time the congregation would hear the voice of the late tenor, as recordings would further punctuate the service of thanksgiving.

Representing the family, Pastor Charles Brevitt remembered Cooper for his sensitivity, compassion, wisdom, and scholarly pursuits and summed up the man by quoting American poet Ralph Waldo Emerson

“ ‘…To earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.’ I do believe Cecil has been a success.”

Former student and visual artist Ebony Patterson remembered her late tutor for his ability to push his students to limits they did no know they were capable of attaining.

“He was a mountain of a man whose presence filled a room’s corners. He was a generous teacher who gave his students so much and always demanded more. This was because he saw you going beyond the potential you had set for yourself. I hear him everyday when I am sharing with my own students,” she recalled.

Cooper’s friend for nearly four decades Robert Gregory reflected on his personality, noting that he was an opinionated straight-talker. “He says what he means and means what he says, charismatic, wore his heart on his sleeve but was no bleeding heart, did not suffer fools gladly.”

Cooper, who died on September 15 after a brief illness, is survived by his widow Rose, daughters Alissa, Alexis and Jamila, stepson Adrian as well as five siblings. He was 70 years old. His death came one week after he invested into the Order of Distinction in the rank of Commander, for his contribution to the arts.

— Richard Johnson