{"id":1507,"date":"2019-06-28T18:22:33","date_gmt":"2019-06-28T22:22:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.montserratspotlight.com\/?p=1507"},"modified":"2020-06-11T11:09:17","modified_gmt":"2020-06-11T15:09:17","slug":"montserrat-gives-frank-edwards-a-rousing-home-going-ceremony","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.montserratspotlight.com\/?p=1507","title":{"rendered":"Montserrat gives Frank Edwards a home-going ceremony befitting his legacy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

There\u2019s an old saying in Montserrat folklore when referring to a person who appears to be mild-mannered or passive: \u201cHe look like he can\u2019t mash fly.\u201d<\/em> Frank Edwards\u2019 friends can\u2019t remember ever seeing him in a confrontation. They don’t even recall him ever raising his voice for that matter. But Edwards\u2019 stoic nature belied his steady leadership, intellect and enduring drive to succeed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Right Honourable Daniel Rudolph Valentine “Frank” Edwards, OBE, OE, was remembered Friday as a man of integrity, character and accomplishment. He was lauded by friends and associates, some of whom knew him upward of 60 years. And there was one recurring theme: Edwards was a quiet storm. He was reserved but resolute, calm but competitive, soft-spoken but self-assertive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Edwards passed away June 7 after a long illness. On Friday, family and friends gathered at the St. Patrick\u2019s Roman Catholic Church in Lookout, Montserrat, for his home-going ceremony. Following the two-and-a-half hour service, Edwards was interred at the Lookout Public Cemetery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Sir Howard Fergus, Edwards\u2019 longtime friend and colleague, delivered the eulogy. He spoke about Edwards\u2019 profound impact on Montserrat society, then concluded with one of his trademark poems. One line in particular resonated:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAt 81 you batted very well, even though we were hoping for a much longer spell.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Edwards delved into many areas during his life, but his involvement in cricket and real estate were heavily noted. In one light moment Friday, veteran attorney Kenneth Allen, Edwards\u2019 longtime friend, quipped: \u201cHe was once a member of the West Indies Cricket Board. \u2026 They can use him right now.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Edwards was born in Plymouth, Montserrat, on September 12, 1937. His father, Freddy Edwards, was the most well-known butcher on the island. His mother Margaret was a housewife. One of Edwards\u2019 neighbors while growing was Tony Maloney, who became a lifelong friend and served as Edwards\u2019 secretary-treasurer when Edwards was president of the Leeward Islands Cricket Association. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThanks for\nover 60 years of unblemished friendship,\u201d an emotional Maloney said as he\nwrapped up his tribute.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Tony Maloney was Frank Edwards’ neighbor while growing up in Water Lane in Plymouth. <\/em> <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Edwards played on the Montserrat cricket team from 1955 to \u201965, including several years as captain. His leadership skills led to his appointment as Leeward Islands captain, an impressive feat considering Montserrat often played third or fourth fiddle in the Leewards hierarchy. After his playing career, Edwards ventured into the administrative side of the game. He became president of the Montserrat Cricket Association, then president of the Leewards Association, earning a crucial seat on the West Indies Cricket Board.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, Edwards was also heavily involved in real estate development in Montserrat as part of Montserrat Company, which he joined in the 1950s after graduating from the Montserrat Secondary School. Many of the villages that saw expansion during the 1960s and ’70s, such as Richmond Hill, Foxes Bay, Isles Bay and Old Towne, came during Edwards\u2019 stewardship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the early 1990s, Edwards took on a big challenge when he was recruited as Chairman of the Board at Bank of Montserrat. Dalton Lee, the current chairman, spoke Friday about how Edwards rescued the teetering bank. After Hurricane Hugo in 1989, the bank approved many loans to homeowners. But the volcanic crisis six years later destroyed much of the collateral used to attain the loans. When Edwards came on board, the bank was operating at a loss and had received a loan of more than E.C. $10,000,000 from the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank. Lee said that by the time Edwards’ tenure ended, the bank was turning a profit and had repaid the loan two years early. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“There is a saying that a true sign of a good leader is that he leaves the organization in better condition than he found it,” Lee said. “That is certainly very true of our dearly departed chairman.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lee also had a surprise announcement: The Bank of Montserrat board voted to establish the D.R.V. Frank Edwards Memorial Scholarship that will be awarded on a tri-annual basis to a young Montserratian who seeks a degree in banking, finance or a related field. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Among those paying tribute to Edwards were Kenneth Allen QC, left, and Dalton Lee.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Two of Edwards\u2019 granddaughters also paid tribute at the service. Amanda Harris sang a stirring acapella version of The Beatles\u2019 Let It Be<\/em>, and Ashley Nicholas performed a number on the steel pan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Montserrat Premier Hon. Donaldson Romeo, who attended a United Nations Committee meeting this week in New York, was unable to be at the service. In his place was former government minister Claude Hogan, who called Edwards a \u201cfounding father of a business-centered Montserrat.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Amanda Harris, granddaughter of Frank Edwards, sings Let It Be during the service.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Edwards is\nsurvived by his wife of 54 years, Eileen, his daughters Beverly Gumbs, Sharon\nNicholas and Dawn Harris, his brother Arnold Edwards, sister Kitty Lynch, five\ngrand-children, and many other extended family members.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Allen, who along with Edwards, Fergus and several others were part of the Jaycees group that organized Montserrat first official Festival in 1962, capped his speech Friday with an emotional sendoff:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGoodnight, prince,\u201d Allen said. \u201cMay flights of angels guide you to your rest.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Police <\/em>commissioner Steve Foster is flanked by Peter White, left, and Alvin Ryan of the Montserrat Defense Force during the funeral for Frank Edwards at a packed Roman Catholic Church in Lookout.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s an old saying in Montserrat folklore when referring to a person who appears to be mild-mannered or passive: \u201cHe look like he can\u2019t mash fly.\u201d Frank Edwards\u2019 friends can\u2019t remember ever seeing him in a confrontation. They don’t even recall him ever raising his voice for that matter. But Edwards\u2019 stoic nature belied his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1518,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[79,84,8,5,85],"tags":[25,185,160,164,26,33,163],"class_list":["post-1507","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-caribbean","category-inthespotlight","category-news","category-sports","category-top5","tag-cricket","tag-drv-frank-edwards","tag-frank-edwards","tag-leeward-islands","tag-montserrat","tag-plymouth","tag-real-estate"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montserratspotlight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1507","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montserratspotlight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montserratspotlight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montserratspotlight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montserratspotlight.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1507"}],"version-history":[{"count":32,"href":"https:\/\/www.montserratspotlight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1507\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2421,"href":"https:\/\/www.montserratspotlight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1507\/revisions\/2421"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montserratspotlight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montserratspotlight.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montserratspotlight.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montserratspotlight.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}