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'My office door is always open'
published: Saturday | February 9, 2008
Hartley Neita, Contributor
When he first joined the Jamaica Tourist Board (JTB) as its deputy director, Desmond Henry told the staff in a getting-to-know-you meeting: "My office door will be always open. And, incidentally, my name is Desmond."
Those words described Desmond Henry's character and style and the way he related to those who worked with him.
Like Audley Shaw who believes that an American recession can be good for Jamaica, so too did Henry, always cheerful even though the tourism arrivals from the United States remained stubbornly low.
Varied career
One member of the staff told me then that Henry's attitude inspired him to work a little harder and for longer hours, so on reflection, he (Henry) was probably justified in exuding confidence even when revenue from tourism was not what was hoped for.
He had a varied career. He represented Cornwall College in athletics and was a bright scholar.
I first met him when he applied for the post of an assistant information officer in the press section of the then Government Public Relations Office. We had devised a very tough test for newcomers and we only recruited the best.
Among those who found a desk there were playwright Slade Hopkinson, author Sylvia Carew, and broadcasters Elaine Perkins, Hope Sealy and Doreen Brown.
Henry passed with flying colours. He was a good writer - and very creative. Among his idiosyncrasies was a fetish for cleanliness. He was one of the first owners of a Volkswagen Beetle and the engine was as clean as a whistle every day; you could toast bread beside the spark plugs and eat it.
Henry was also a gifted gabber, and he talked his way to a scholarship from the president of a university he was assigned to carry around the island.
After university, he was seconded to the Jamaican Embassy in Washington, DC. And among the things he did was to organise an annual Jamaica Independence cricket match among members of the diplomatic corps in the American capital.
Our ambassador Sir Neville Ashenheim, though by then rotund and portly, was an enthusiast on the playing field.
On his return to Jamaica, he joined the staff of Martin's Tours, and then gabbed his way to becoming festival director. There, he was responsible for introducing polka dots and stripes and other combinations of colour for each year's activities.
He then joined with Ralston Smith and Ken Jones to form the first private public relations agency in Jamaica. They did the campaign for P.J. Patterson's first entry into representational politics in South East Westmoreland, and then the 1972 election campaign for the People's National Party (PNP).
Henry is credited with intro-ducing orange as the colour for the PNP and identifying Patterson with Nina Simone's Young, Gifted and Black theme song.
From there, he went to the JTB, and when the Government changed in 1980, he became for the rest of his life the 'former director of tourism'.
By the mid-1980s, he was involved with two friends in Tourmarks, a ground transport tourism entity. He then joined the management staff of Desnoes and Geddes where his persona made him as well known as Red Stripe beer.
Community tourism
In the early 1990s, he took on the task of trying to influence the Jamaican diaspora in North America to invest in Jamaica, but this was not what he wanted to do.
He came back to Jamaica and teamed with Diana McIntyre-Pike to develop community tourism on the south coast. It was then he started writing a weekly column in The Gleaner.
Unfortunately, he became ill and migrated to the United States to be with his wife. He died there last Saturday after a long illness, and after a lifetime in which he left his footprints in many areas of public life.
Knowing him, as my friends and I do, we expect that on arrival at the Pearly Gates he will be effusive in his greeting.
"Hello Peter. My name is Desmond."
published: Saturday | February 9, 2008
Hartley Neita, Contributor
When he first joined the Jamaica Tourist Board (JTB) as its deputy director, Desmond Henry told the staff in a getting-to-know-you meeting: "My office door will be always open. And, incidentally, my name is Desmond."
Those words described Desmond Henry's character and style and the way he related to those who worked with him.
Like Audley Shaw who believes that an American recession can be good for Jamaica, so too did Henry, always cheerful even though the tourism arrivals from the United States remained stubbornly low.
Varied career
One member of the staff told me then that Henry's attitude inspired him to work a little harder and for longer hours, so on reflection, he (Henry) was probably justified in exuding confidence even when revenue from tourism was not what was hoped for.
He had a varied career. He represented Cornwall College in athletics and was a bright scholar.
I first met him when he applied for the post of an assistant information officer in the press section of the then Government Public Relations Office. We had devised a very tough test for newcomers and we only recruited the best.
Among those who found a desk there were playwright Slade Hopkinson, author Sylvia Carew, and broadcasters Elaine Perkins, Hope Sealy and Doreen Brown.
Henry passed with flying colours. He was a good writer - and very creative. Among his idiosyncrasies was a fetish for cleanliness. He was one of the first owners of a Volkswagen Beetle and the engine was as clean as a whistle every day; you could toast bread beside the spark plugs and eat it.
Henry was also a gifted gabber, and he talked his way to a scholarship from the president of a university he was assigned to carry around the island.
After university, he was seconded to the Jamaican Embassy in Washington, DC. And among the things he did was to organise an annual Jamaica Independence cricket match among members of the diplomatic corps in the American capital.
Our ambassador Sir Neville Ashenheim, though by then rotund and portly, was an enthusiast on the playing field.
On his return to Jamaica, he joined the staff of Martin's Tours, and then gabbed his way to becoming festival director. There, he was responsible for introducing polka dots and stripes and other combinations of colour for each year's activities.
He then joined with Ralston Smith and Ken Jones to form the first private public relations agency in Jamaica. They did the campaign for P.J. Patterson's first entry into representational politics in South East Westmoreland, and then the 1972 election campaign for the People's National Party (PNP).
Henry is credited with intro-ducing orange as the colour for the PNP and identifying Patterson with Nina Simone's Young, Gifted and Black theme song.
From there, he went to the JTB, and when the Government changed in 1980, he became for the rest of his life the 'former director of tourism'.
By the mid-1980s, he was involved with two friends in Tourmarks, a ground transport tourism entity. He then joined the management staff of Desnoes and Geddes where his persona made him as well known as Red Stripe beer.
Community tourism
In the early 1990s, he took on the task of trying to influence the Jamaican diaspora in North America to invest in Jamaica, but this was not what he wanted to do.
He came back to Jamaica and teamed with Diana McIntyre-Pike to develop community tourism on the south coast. It was then he started writing a weekly column in The Gleaner.
Unfortunately, he became ill and migrated to the United States to be with his wife. He died there last Saturday after a long illness, and after a lifetime in which he left his footprints in many areas of public life.
Knowing him, as my friends and I do, we expect that on arrival at the Pearly Gates he will be effusive in his greeting.
"Hello Peter. My name is Desmond."