George Forbes, the former sports administrator and journalist who died on Tuesday, is remembered as a “gentle soul”, totally dedicated to the operations of the Inter-secondary Schools Sports Association (ISSA) until his retirement two years ago.

“George and I had a very close working relationship. He was a gentle soul and we enjoyed a lot of good times together, a lot of old jokes,” veteran journalist Evan Hewitt told the Jamaica Observer.

He said he and Forbes, who was ill for a period of time before passing away at age 63, were good friends from the late 1970s to early 1980s when they fulfilled scholarships in Cuba.

“We studied together, we shared a lot, we went out on weekends, and ran our jokes. The Jamaicans who studied there [in Cuba] during that particular time, we lived like a family.

“He was very dedicated to his work, he was very stern, very principled and held firm to what he believed. And he loved his family and everybody who worked with him can tell you he held firmly to his beliefs and tried to get the best and tried to do the best,” Hewitt recounted.

As ISSA competitions and executive officer, Forbes was a central figure in the running of high school sports during his time with the association from 2002 and 2020, and was largely credited for the successful staging of various events.

Jerry Holness, a teacher and track and field coach at Manchester High for several years, also studied in the Spanish-speaking island during Forbes’ time there.

“We spent four years together in Cuba and George was my roommate. We graduated and came back to Jamaica and were close friends. He was like a brother to me. We used to talk almost every day, but the last we spoke in September,” he said.

“He was very passionate about what he was doing, and he believed in honesty and fair play and laid a solid foundation in his role at ISSA. We have missed and will continue to miss the services. He did a lot for sports… his mark will live on forever,” Holness reasoned.

Dr Walton Small, who was ISSA president from 2007 to 2019, said Forbes was an invaluable guiding hand.

“He was with me from the beginning to the end [of my tenure] and I could rest on him. I never felt uncomfortable taking the presidency of ISSA… because a good leader surrounds himself with quality people and he was one of those people,” he told the Observer.

“He was immersed as competitions officer…he was such a giant. A lot of the success of ISSA was due to Mr Forbes’ contribution,” Small said, noting Forbes sacrificed time and travelled long distances to make himself available to schools administrators and coaches to build awareness about the association’s rules.

“He was very thoughtful and understanding… and did all the upfront work to [minimise] disputes and all of that.”

In a release, ISSA said Forbes’ tenure was “instrumental” in its growth as an association.

“George provided sterling leadership to the association and was instrumental in ISSA’s efforts to modernise its operations while fulfilling its mandate of providing wholesome sporting competitions for our member schools.

“Having served three different presidents during his tenure at ISSA, George was a source of great knowledge and guidance to the executive body and provided significant leadership in all aspects of ISSA’S operations,” the statement read.