Circular No 695

 

Newsletter for alumni of The Abbey School, Mt. St. Benedict, Trinidad and Tobago, W.I.

Caracas, 28 February 2015 No. 695

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Dear Friends,

Here is an example of another bit of sad news of our community,

The graduates of 1960 regret his passing away.

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Nigel Boos

Feb 16

Thanks, Rob.

I don’t know what blog you might be referring to, but in any case, you’re quite correct. I had reported on Gerard’s death some time ago. See:

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Kazim,

It is my sad duty to report to you that Gerard Pampellonne (OB 1959/60) has passed away today in England, after a battle with cancer. His wife and children were at his bedside when he died.

I would appreciate if you would do the honours and advise the Old Boys of MSB of his passing.

Gerard was, in my time, our 2nd Mt. St. Benedict Scout Troop Leader, and a fine, highly principled young man he was. He graduated from the Abbey School in either 1959 or 1960.

He married Kathleen, an English girl, who he met while studying in England. Their children are Anna-Marie, Jean-Marc, Claudette, Andre and the twins Christian and Chantal. They lived in San Fernando for many years, while he operated an oilfield service company - Trinidad Inspection Services Ltd. He retired from his business to move to England some years ago, and his son-in-law, Paul Navarro, now runs the company.

In 2011 Gerard was planning to return to Trinidad to spend time in a house he had built in Diego Martin. Everything was packed and they were ready to leave, when, feeling unwell, he went to see the specialists and he was diagnosed with lung cancer. They managed a final visit to Trinidad last year when he was still feeling strong.

Gerard's brother, Dave, was also a student at the Abbey School, but unfortunately, I do not have his email address.

I'm sure I speak for all of us Old Boys in expressing my deepest sympathy to Kathleen and her children and to Dave.

May his soul rest in peace.

Anyone wishing to contact his family can do so using this contact telephone number (0208 508 - 7730) and email address:  gerard.pampellonne@ntlworld.com

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I also have come across a photograph of David which I must have taken back in 1959, and perhaps he’d like to have it too, for his records:

I’m sorry to hear that he’s not doing too well. If you should see him again, please pass on my good wishes.

Thanks.

Nigel

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On Feb 13, 2015, at 8:19 AM,

Robert De Verteuil <rlcdev44@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi Nigel

I read recently in one of the blogs that David Pampelonne died some time ago.

Well, David lives a few doors from me in Westmoorings and up to yesterday I saw him walking with his nurse.

He had some type of illness that left him similar as if he had a stroke.

I met Gerard Pamp about a year ago.

He told me he was coming back to tt from the uk and was going to build a big house!

I never saw him again and was told that he returned to the uk where he became critically ill....not sure with what.

Maybe he is the one who died!

All the best

Robert

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THE NEXT FRONTIER FOR HEALTH, SAFETY AND THE ENVIRONMENT (HSE)

GEORGE MICKIEWICZ Senior Process Safety Consultant at DuPont

Tablets, Smartphones, Books and those future hands held portable devices that are yet to be invented are a real challenge today in situations that currently involve face-to-face human interactions.

In my interactions with clients over the last year, I estimate that at least 50% of the audience/participants use their electronic devices during our interactions ranging from seconds to minutes in time.

This practice has increased significantly since I started to do a little consulting work in the last 10 years.

Old-timers like me view this as disrespectful, not paying attention, lack of participation, etc.

However this practice will not change but increase as the younger generations join the work force.

This phenomenon presents a great opportunity for visionaries.

Especially for those companies that today value and extensively use HSE communication/training and related activities.

I will address HSE aspects but recognize that it also applies to many, many, many other business interactions and deliverables.

In the HSE field, we need to start thinking and applying it in situations involving value adding interactions, e.g.:

Safety moments/pauses shared via SMSs.

Training, PHAs, MOCs, Incident Investigations and other human safety related interactions via web meetings versus conference room sessions.

Each person with a portable electronic device that has all HSE the policies, standards, procedures, checklists, regulations, permits and all other required documents to work and run hazardous processes safely.

And so on.

Today we do have e-learning systems, databases, specific software for specific safety tasks, etc..

However, most of these require the use of PCs but, I am guessing, that PCs will probably cease to be cost competitive within 5 years as the hand held device technology continues its revolutionary continuous improvement process.

Will you be the next Steve Jobs, Bill Gates to invent the next device/ APP to integrate all the HSE related requirements into one effective, low cost, flexible tool that will enable society to work and operate hazardous processes more SAFELY than we are able to do today?

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GLEN MCKOY

Dear George, 

So True all of what is written on HSE..

This is a new habit, and it’s very disrespectful to be using these devices, while in a conversation with another, it shows a lack of manners and maybe you are bored to pay attention to whoever is conversing with you.

When one is walking it is a very wonderful thing, to look at the surroundings, the sky, other people sharing life around you, but with these devices you are lost in a vacuum somewhere in cyber space.

Thank you for sharing, it is already a problem with the present generation.

Best regards

Glen McKoy.

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From: "Richard" <rdriver@telus.net>  

Subject: My 50 words

Date: Tue, 11 Oct 2005 17:05:04 -0700

Hi Ladislao,

I really enjoy your bulletins, even though I can't put faces to most of the names, the names I remember..

Keep up the good work, 

God Bless. Regards 

Richard. 

Before giving you my “50” words. I would like to mention the article I read in The Vancouver Sun newspaper some weeks ago that states “Scientists have discovered  you start losing your memory by age 10” With that in mind, I’ll see what I can do.

I was shipped off to Mount at the tender age of 9 in 1946. I was one of the BG contingent that included Trevor Evelyn (the senior member) Neal & Alex Gonsalves,  Osmand Gomes,  Clive Bettencourt Gomes, Eric King & his brother??. Some of the others were the Schouls’, Ian, Steven, Conrad,  Malcolm Boyack.

We “little” boys lived under the big “arm” of  Fr. Lee Sing. Can’t say he spared the rod as we found out just before bedtime in our pajamas. He also played a good game of marbles.

In ’48 I left Mount and went to St Stanislaus College in BG, among my class mates was Kevin Greene aka Fr Hildebrand in later years.

After leaving school in ’54, I went to live in Trinidad, where I came across many of the boys I had met at Mount, Arthur Knaggs, Peter Ganteaume, to name a couple. Went back to BG in ’56 worked  with RJ Shannon(NCR).

In 1967 I got married to Pauline daSilva, and in 1973 we immigrated to Canada and made Richmond,  British Columbia our home. I continued to work with NCR until I retired in ’02.  We have 2 “kids”  Catherine, who lives in Vancouver, & Mark who lives in Toronto.  In 2001 we finally had an empty house, or so we thought, but living in  Beautiful BC, we have a constant stream of visitors.

My address is  Richard Driver,  4311 Lancelot Drive,  Richmond, BC  V7C 4S4.

Phone No. is 604 277 5673, email is rdriver@telus.net.

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Now to the best part??  Although I find that your emails are the best.

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Photos:

Bandit p14 The Early Times

65AK0001CRICKET, sent by Arthur Knaggs

58AK0033CRICKET, sent by Arthur Knaggs

59UN0002GPA, Gerard Pampellonne