EVEN during his years as a student at Bishop’s High School, Tobago, the Prime Minister had always exhibited the qualities of a leader.
This is the view of Dr Rowley’s former classmates and teachers at his alma mater, which he attended from 1962-1966.
Rowley, who turns 76 on October 24, said on February 26 that he would resign officially as head of the government on March 16, after serving 44 years in public life.
Energy Minister Stuart Young will become Trinidad and Tobago’s next prime minister. Rowley will remain political leader of the PNM but has bowed out of electoral politics.
Selwyn Pilgrim, one of Rowley’s closest boyhood friends, said the outgoing prime minister had always “assumed leadership” for the activities in which he was engaged.
He said he was not surprised when Rowley entered politics on a People’s National Movement (PNM) ticket in 1981 and eventually rose to the position of prime minister.
“He was always a leader,” Pilgrim told Sunday Newsday.
He said Rowley was a prominent figure in Bishop’s Literary and Debating Society and, at one time, was also the school’s head boy.
Rowley, he said, also led on the playing field.
“One thing I always tell people is that he loved cricket. I remember in first and second form, we used to play with tin cups and a coconut bat when we didn’t have a ball.
“He (Rowley) was a fast bowler and from morning he always assumed leadership in the cricket. When we played, he was always the captain and from early o’clock, we used to call him the skipper. That name stayed with him.”
[caption id="attachment_1141755" align="alignnone" width="720"] The Prime Minister, centre, and his former classmates at their Bishop's High School reunion in Tobago in January. -[/caption]
Pilgrim said they sometimes played on opposing teams.
“I loved to bat against him because my favourite shot was the square cut so whenever he was bowling he used to bowl balls outside the off stump and I loved that. Sometimes when I was playing against him, I used to enjoy that because he used to facilitate my square cut.”
He also described his friend as playful and mischievous in school.
“We used to sit together and do everything together. So when he got punished, I got punished and vice-versa. Many times, when we finished our work, we would provoke the other children in the class.”
The Sherwood Park, Carnbee, Tobago resident recalled that Rowley had once encouraged him to leave the school’s Mayfair prematurely.
“I remember the first time I went to Rex cinema (now defunct) in Scarborough, he was the man who took me there. We really left to go to a Mayfair but during the Mayfair, he took me to the cinema. I remember it was the first time that I went there. I even remember the film that we saw, Jason and the Argonauts.”
On a deeper level, Pilgrim said Rowley, a geologist by profession, took his education seriously.
“Although he was mischievous when it came to serious things, he would take serious things seriously to the extent where one day our geography teacher came late to
