Gail Alexan­der

Trib­utes are still com­ing for late teacher, artist and folk­lorist Al Ram­sawak whose fu­ner­al is to­day.

Ram­sawak died last week­end at the age of 91.

A well-known son of Rousil­lac, Ram­sawak was a foun­da­tion mem­ber of the staff of San Fer­nan­do Gov­ern­ment Sec­ondary School (SFGSS) where he was the art teacher for many years.

He al­so had a ca­reer as a writer and folk­lorist, go­ing to var­i­ous parts of T&T and chron­i­cling T&T’s nat­ur­al life and folk­lore. A gift­ed artist, Ram­sawak did this via a com­bi­na­tion of sto­ries high­light­ed by his artis­tic in­ter­pre­ta­tions of char­ac­ters such as douens, soucouyants, and oth­ers.

His work was pub­lished in the Sun­day Guardian mag­a­zine for years and in oth­er me­dia. Ram­sawak al­so wrote sev­er­al folk­lore books.

Ram­sawak is re­mem­bered very fond­ly by sur­viv­ing mem­bers of the school fac­ul­ty, in­clud­ing for­mer vice-prin­ci­pal Lennox Khan and Ram­sawak’s stu­dents, many of whom are to­day re­porters, judges, at­tor­neys, for­mer TTPS mem­bers, Coast Guard, the le­gal fra­ter­ni­ty and oth­er state sec­tors.

An SFGSS col­league, for­mer UWI prin­ci­pal and UNC MP Dr Bhoe Tewarie laud­ed Ram­sawak: “Al was a won­der­ful fel­low. He loved life and liv­ing and na­ture around him. When I was a teacher at SFGSS we talked from time to time and I ad­mired how eas­i­ly draw­ing came to him.

“We shared a love of sto­ries and jokes. He was good at that. I’m glad he en­joyed 91 years of life. God bless his soul and give him peace.”

For­mer SFGSS stu­dent, UNC MP Roodal Mooni­lal said, “It was with deep sad­ness that I re­ceived the news of the pass­ing of my for­mer teacher and men­tor, folk­lorist, writer, play­wright and di­rec­tor Al Ram­sawak. Al was a pro­found in­spi­ra­tion to me in my great years at SFGSS.

“He was much more than an art teacher. I have fond mem­o­ries of prepar­ing for in­ter-school de­bates or dra­ma fes­ti­vals in his of­fice. Al was mild-man­nered and gen­tle with a heart of gold. He ap­pre­ci­at­ed our mul­ti-cul­tur­al land­scape and por­trayed the rich­ness of our folk­lore and lit­er­ary her­itage.

“Years af­ter ‘Mod Sec’ we re­mained close friends, en­joy­ing en­joyed the oc­ca­sion­al lime and ole talk. His love of life and pos­i­tive out­look in­flu­enced us all to see the virtues around us and strive for hap­pi­ness as a defin­ing el­e­ment. Con­do­lences to his fam­i­ly and dear friends. Rest in peace Al.”