EULOGY

                                                    Major Vincent Bennett “Brongo” Browne

I have come today to join you, family, friends and countrymen, in celebrating the distinguished life of one of Montserrat’s premier sons;  to pay due homage to one of her noblest souls.

The Caribbean Basin has repeatedly had cause to celebrate the life and work of its Nobel Laureates – Sir Arthur Lewis and Derek Walcott of St Lucia; Vidia Naipaul of Trinidad and Tobago;  Saint John Perse of Guadeloupe; Gabriel Garcia Marquez of Colombia; Miguel Angel Asturias and Rigoberta Menchu of Guatemala; and Octavio Paz of Mexico – all luminaries in their own right, of whom the region is justly proud.  Monatserrat produced Vincent Browne, a native son who is regionally known, loved and admired by the generations of the nineteen-fifties and beyond.

What manner of man was he?

• undergraduate student President at UWI Mona;

• career educator, foreign language teacher, high school and university administrator/counselor from Montserrat in the center, to Jamaica in the north-west, and Barbados in the south-east;
• versatile musician, music teacher and song writer;
• award-winning playwright, producer and director of theatre;
• radio broadcast manager and church choiar director;
• Red Cross, Jaycees, Rotary President;
• Chief officer of Boys Scouts, Sea Scouts and Girls Guides;
• Commanding Officer and band leader of the local military and the Cadet Corps;
• dedicated public servant and royal honoree.

His legacy to Montserrat is an exemplary track record of patriotism and dedicated service that our historians must document for generations to come; our literary figures should emulate and celebrate;  our children must study and treasure; and our government must honor and emboss in bronze.  MAWU and UNF extol his merits and salute that legacy with optimum pride.

This society owes a national debt to the sole figure whose multi-tiered community service and sacrificial volunteerism qualified him to be dubbed Mr. Montserrat par excellence.  He was everywhere and in everything providing leadership, touching lives and making a difference.  He was a community builder who was relentlessly engaged in creative cultural and educational activities, as well as dynamic social and developmental service.

A society without its icons is a society cheated of its own history and identity.   Brongo is, unquestionably, a national icon alongside the local greats like F E Peters, Hodge Kirnon, T N Kirnon, Fred Samuels, Noel and Miriam Chambers, W H Bramble, R W Griffith, M E Walkinshaw, J C L Wall, M S Osborne, and people of their caliber.

We are yet to see the MSS Gallery of Honor promised for many years; we have not yet instituted the Ministry of Education and Culture Hall of Fame, except for the Jim Allen Lecture Series, a welcome start;  we await access to the Government Information Service database and archival unit on the achievements of sons and daughters of Alliouagana worldwide.  Novel Laureates are not born, nor do they win garlands by chance.  The excellence of their accomplishments must first be appreciated by their governments for them to obtain nomination for the prestigious international award.

Admittedly, some of our legends are strictly local figures – J T “Boddo” Allen, Quamina Williams, W E Wade, Richard Piper, Mas Mike, Annie Cummings Greenaway, J Menzies of Ben Dyer fame – glorious or infamous in their own restricted corners.  Others have regional recognition in very particular fields – sports, politics, business, trade unionism, journalism or the professions.  Brongo’s persona and work transcend that limited sphere as a regional personality of multi-disciplinary and multi-cultural dimensions.

In that sense, therefore, an institution that represents the secondary and tertiary ranges of his work and influence deserves to be identified with the name of the man as a minimal tribute to the legacy he has bequeathed.

I have never been hasty in ascribing a mentorship role to individuals who have in some way touched my life, but I will proudly acknowledge that the two people who have had greatest impact on my life and career are my grandmother, Mary Sweeney-Rodney, and my high school Principal, foreign language teacher, colleague and friend, Vincent B Browne. 

Surely, my parents played primary roles in my early education and development, but my secondary and post-secondary development was largely the work of these two moral giants.  One was my spiritual and emotional mentor who nurtured my nascent dreams, and monitored my youthful impulses to foster the stability, confidence and spiritual strength to become a highly motivated achiever;  the other was my academic inspiration and career pace-setter who drew out the best talent in me.  Both were, indeed, my true friends.

Brongo’s grand worldview and success became my benchmarks for  growth.  I admired his musicianship and theatrical talent, his popularity as an undergraduate leader, his  proficiency in Modern Languages, his effectiveness as a community leader, and his philosophy as an educator.   He had much that a fledgling scholar and leader could emulate, and one of my guiding aspirations was always to match his diverse achievements in the arts and community involvement.

Human encounters are not just fortuitous.  I believe in a divine plan and purpose for each life, and I believe that God foresaw the nature and outcome of my personal journey with Brongo.  He was the gate-keeper set in my path to open doors of opportunity for self-fulfillment.  The milestones are part of the history of our shared experience:

• riding in his green Morris car (M42) to take my first trip by air to Antigua and Grenada for the West Indies Federation Sixth Formers’ Leadership Conference in partnership with the Choate School of USA;
• returning to be met at Blackburne airport by a proud Principal excited about my election to the Chairmanship of the Commission on Education and Culture;
• the approval of my request to create an MSS Choir and Newsletter;
• the start of the Saturday morning Youth Corner on Radio Montserrat in partnership with Carol Kelsick;
• my selection for the historic debate with Walter Rodney and visiting UWI undergraduates at the MSS with Ken Allen as teammate;
• the MSS Student of the Year Awards in 1959 and 1961;
• the University of Cambridge A-level results that won me the Montserrat Island Scholarship, and evoked, contrary to the usually stolid semblance of my Principal, the first sign of emotion about student achievement in the form of a personal letter from Anguilla where he was vacationing;
• traveling to UWI as a freshman on the same plane as my Principal who was returning as a graduate student in Education;
• winning the UWI student of the Year Award in 1964, which for me was a Montserratian sequel to the success of Brongo as an undergraduate at Mona;
• earning the first UWI PhD in Spanish as a tribute to my grandmother and the man who gave me my first exposure to the Spanish language;
• serving as Assistant Lecturer in Spanish and French (the two subjects he taught me up to A-levels) and as Sub-Warden of Taylor Hall at the same time that he served as Warden of neighboring Chancellor Hall.

There was a personal excitement for me, and a mutual admiration and respect between these two sons of Alliouagana.  We shared a love for music, theatre, languages, literature, the military, and a passionate community consciousness and patriotism;  but more compelling yet, I either measured myself by his sterling record of achievements or sought to make him proud by my own modest exploits.

And, to crown it all, he who was never known to be a political animal, stepped out of retirement to take a stand as Chairman of the UNF team in stout defiance of opposing views.  He had always preached to generations of students two fundamental and soul-searching maxims:

• You must always do the right thing because it is the right thing to do;
• You must have the spine to stand up for what is right.

He showed both spine and conviction, standing tall for principle over popularity in a field where principle is sacrificed for money, favor and expediency. 

The Apostle James (1:22-25) compares “hearers” and “doers” of the Word, using a mirror image.  One sees his reflection in the mirror, but forgets what he looks like as soon as he leaves;  the other sees himself in the mirror of life and does not forget that picture for he lives by the principles and standards of the perfect law of liberty – integrity, decency, fairness, loyalty and sincerity.

I learned from Brongo, not just military and academic discipline, cultural creativity, artistic proficiency and versatility, but the spirit of unselfish volunteerism and sense of community.  Through his conduct rather than sermons, he taught me a sense of integrity and purposefulness in human endeavor and an inimitable spirit of tolerance and forgiveness.

Meekness is not a populist trait;  it makes martyrs of men.  Perhaps few people have ever understood or experienced the profundity of this virtue that by far transcends the quality of humility.  The latter is an adopted posture of will, disposition and discipline;   the former, a deep-seated quality of character and spirit.  One chooses to be humble;  but one is innately meek by virtue of an ingrained spiritual gift.

The Bible speaks of only two men who were truly, inherently meek – Jesus, the meek and lowly Nazarene (Matt.11:29);  and Moses, the meekest man on earth (Num.12:3).  Daniel and David were described as men who came close to being meek;  one lauded for having “an excellent spirit”, and the other, like Moses, willing to give his life for his charges so God would spare them the wrath of His judgment (2 Sam.24:17).

Brongo was a man of like ilk, a man among men.  At no time did he ever hold himself up as a paragon of virtue, but, especially in his treatment of people, he consistently demonstrated an unparalleled pattern of virtuous living.  He respected people of all walks of life and was willing to forego his own rights for the good of others.  He refused to frown, grimace or complain when less talented, less literate politicians failed to appoint him to the headship of the MSS, favoring the personas of less gifted Bajans over a local son of extraordinary merit.  So, as a superb dramatist, he “acted” the part with grace.

He taught more by example than by preaching.  His precepts were enveloped in modes of behavior that taught men (university men, church men, community men, and tough military men) how to be manly rather than “macho”;  he taught boys (cadets, scouts, students) how to be valiant and unselfish rather than “mannish” and self-centered.

He taught girls the virtues of elegance and intellect over fashion, and inner strength and beauty over external décor.

I will remember him with deep affection, highest respect and boundless pride. 

May we all cherish the richness of his invaluable contribution to our national heritage.