KINGSTON, Jamaica— Professor Edward Baugh has died. He was 87.

It is reported that Baugh died on Saturday, about a month shy of his 88th birthday.

In a release lauding his vast achievements and contributions to literature, Culture Minister Olivia Grange stated that with Professor Baugh’s passing Jamaica and the Caribbean have lost a literary giant.

“Professor Baugh will be remembered for a distinguished academic career during which he focused on West Indian literature, especially the study of Anglophone Caribbean poetry, and in particular the work of Nobel Laureate, Derek Walcott,” Grange said.

Grange went on to outline that Baugh began writing poetry while he was a student at Titchfield High School and won a scholarship to study English literature at the University College of the West Indies. He later did his postgraduate studies at Queen’s University in Ontario, Canada, and at the University of Manchester, where he earned a PhD in 1964.

Baugh shared his vast knowledge as a teacher at the University of the West Indies (UWI) Cave Hill campus then at the university’s Mona campus, before being appointed professor of English in 1978 and UWI’s Public Orator in 1985.

He also held visiting appointments at the University of California, Dalhousie University, University of Hull, University of Wollongong, Flinders University, Macquarie University, University of Miami and Howard University, the release said.

“It is with much pleasure that I can remind us also that in 2012 he was awarded a Gold Musgrave Medal by the Institute of Jamaica (IOJ). He was also the co-recipient of the 2021 Bocas Henry Swanzy Award along with colleague and fellow poet, Professor Mervyn Morris. That Award celebrates the contributions of editors, broadcasters, publishers, critics and others who have devoted their careers to developing Caribbean literature,” the minister said.

She added, “It would require much more than this medium to say enough about the works of Professor Edward Alston Cecil Baugh, literary giant and Public Orator, whose voice has now gone quiet but whose legacy will resound with us for a long time.”

Minister Grange went on to offer her condolences to Baugh’s family and friends.