RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

As the news of Pro­fes­sor Brins­ley Sama­roo's pass­ing spread through­out T&T, trib­utes have con­tin­ued to pour in, mourn­ing the loss of a re­mark­able aca­d­e­m­ic.

Among those mak­ing trib­utes were na­tion­al award win­ner and lec­tur­er at the Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies, Dr Jerome Teelucks­ingh, who was a pro­tégé of Pro­fes­sor Sama­roo.

Call­ing on the coun­try to rec­og­nize the pro­found con­tri­bu­tion that Pro­fes­sor Sama­roo made to the his­tor­i­cal record of T&T, Dr Teelucks­ingh said, "Brins­ley Sama­roo, the aca­d­e­m­ic leg­end, was a mas­ter of his craft. He was re­spect­ed as a se­ri­ous schol­ar who un­earthed his­tor­i­cal trea­sures in li­braries and archives across the globe."

Dr Teelucks­ingh, clear­ly moved by the late pro­fes­sor's work added, "Lat­er, he would dis­til this knowl­edge in­to food for thought for ea­ger au­di­ences. He had a live­ly de­liv­ery style in his many pre­sen­ta­tions. It is a tal­ent to take a top­ic, con­sid­ered bor­ing, and trans­form it in­to an ar­ti­cle or speech that is ex­cit­ing and in­ter­est­ing!"

Re­call­ing Pro­fes­sor Sama­roo's com­mand­ing pres­ence when­ev­er he spoke, Dr Teelucks­ingh said, "Pro­fes­sor Sama­roo earned re­spect for his depth of knowl­edge, ex­pe­ri­ence, ex­cel­lent mem­o­ry, hu­mour, and cap­ti­vat­ing anec­dotes. De­spite some dis­agree­ments with his views, Pro­fes­sor Sama­roo held an es­teemed place in the hearts and minds of those who knew him. His im­pec­ca­ble re­search en­riched their lives and broad­ened their un­der­stand­ing of Trinidad and To­ba­go's his­to­ry."

The late pro­fes­sor had a pro­found im­pact on count­less stu­dents, hav­ing lec­tured to hun­dreds at both Na­pari­ma Col­lege and the Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies, Dr Teel­cuks­ingh said.

"He al­so nour­ished the minds of many more through his pre­sen­ta­tions at con­fer­ences and sem­i­nars around the world," Dr Teel­cuks­ingh added.

Say­ing many of Pro­fes­sor Sama­roo's for­mer stu­dents have gone on to achieve suc­cess in var­i­ous fields, Dr Teelucks­ingh said it was the un­der the Pro­fes­sor's tute­lage and guid­ance that they suc­ceed­ed.

"He mould­ed and em­pow­ered young minds while fos­ter­ing a gen­er­a­tion of civic-mind­ed Caribbean cit­i­zens," Dr Teelucks­ingh said.

He said the lega­cy of Pro­fes­sor Brins­ley Sama­roo lives on, not on­ly in the pages of his­to­ry he metic­u­lous­ly ex­plored but al­so in the hearts and minds of the in­di­vid­u­als he in­spired and men­tored. "His con­tri­bu­tions to acad­e­mia and his ded­i­ca­tion to the study of Trinidad and To­ba­go's past will for­ev­er be re­mem­bered and cher­ished by those who had the priv­i­lege of learn­ing from him. As the na­tion mourns his loss, may his mem­o­ry con­tin­ue to in­spire fu­ture gen­er­a­tions of schol­ars and his­to­ri­ans to delve in­to the rich ta­pes­try of their own her­itage," he added.

Pro­fes­sor Sama­roo's health had tak­en a turn last week when he suf­fered an aneurysm. He was ad­mit­ted to Med­ical As­so­ciates and re­ceived de­vot­ed care from his fam­i­ly, who re­mained by his side through­out. He passed away just af­ter mid­day on Sun­day.