A tribute to Ms. Sybil Patterson

Dec 29, 2017 Letters

Dear Editor,
Please accept my gratitude for enabling me to publicly express sincere condolence on behalf of family members and former colleagues at the passing of Ms.Sybil Patterson, retired Senior Lecturer in the Social Work Unit of the University of Guyana.
I first met this remarkable social worker in 1959 when I visited my brother who was stationed at the Suddie Office of the Ministry of Agriculture. By sheer coincidence, she and her fellow officer, the late Mr.C.E.Smith, had arranged a meeting with the local community leaders in an effort to stimulate participation in the planned community development programme. I could not help being struck by the zeal and enthusiasm which she exhibited.
About two years later, I joined the clerical staff at the Head Office of the Social Welfare Department, and Ms. Patterson had been located. We got to know each other well, and I found her to be extremely friendly and generous in her advice and encouragement to younger staff members. She regularly enquired of us to what studies we were undertaking, and about our future educational plans.
It was at the University of Guyana that I came to realise how devoted she was to her profession. She and the late Mr. Frank Pollard were seconded there to develop the Social Work Diploma course so that persons in that field could be trained in Guyana, rather than overseas.
Ms.Patterson set about this task assiduously, and sought to recruit students from both government and non-government organisations, voluntary and professional workers, through imaginative and aggressive outreach. She organised courses during the long vacation in order to help some persons to qualify. She mounted short programmes in specialised fields.
Equally important was the utilisation of her regional and international contacts to help in the equipping of staff members. She was quite popular among her Caribbean colleagues as well as British and North American associates and conducted research and projects with them.
Her involvement with the Commonwealth Youth Programme touched youths along the entire coastland, inspiring many of them to exemplary achievement.
Through all of her many accomplishments, I found one of her most memorable traits to be her attitude towards the junior and ancillary staff to whom she related. At UG, ‘Miss P’, as she was affectionately known, was always willing to go out of her way to help. She was one of the founder-members, and served as President, of the university’s Credit Union.
She counselled, and encouraged them through so many problems.
I read somewhere that ‘heaven and hell is a matter of what people who knew you well, say about you after you die’. By this standard, I know where Miss Patterson is resting now. May she do so in peace!
Respectfully,
Michael Parris

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