KINGSTON, Jamaica – Jamaica’s Culture Olivia Grange has paid tribute to the University of the West Indies’ (UWI) professor emeritus of English, Edward Baugh, , who died on Sunday at the age of 87 years.
Professor Edward BaughShe said Jamaica and the Caribbean have lost a literary giant, adding “Professor Baugh will be remembered for a distinguished academic career during which he focused on West Indian literature, especially the study of Anglophone Caribbean poetry, and in particular the work of Nobel Laureate, Derek Walcott.”
Professor emeritus Dr Norval Edwards, described his late colleague as an “intellectual giant” and that his death is an “immense loss”, not only for Jamaica but for the wider Caribbean.
“Jamaica and the wider Caribbean have lost an intellectual giant, an erudite and brilliant scholar, an exemplary teacher, and anyone who has been taught by him would have been touched and inspired by his brilliance,” he said, addin “he transmitted a love for the subject.”
Edwards said Baugh was also a fine poet and an internationally renowned scholar on the works of St Lucian poet and playwright, Derek Walcott, and Jamaican poet and essayist Lorna Goodison.
Baugh’s 36-year association with the UWI began at the Cave Hill campus, in Barbados in 1965, spending three years there before returning home to Jamaica to work at the Mona campus.
During his tenure, he served as head of the Department of English, Vice-Dean and Dean of the Faculty of Arts and General Studies and Public Orator.
He was made a Professor of English in 1978.
His list of awards includes the Order of Distinction, the UWI Vice-Chancellor Award for Excellence in Teaching and Administration, the Institute of Jamaica Silver Musgrave Medal, the UWI Guild of Graduates’ Pelican Award, and the Institute of Jamaica Gold Musgrave Medal.
Professor Baugh is survived by his widow, Shelia and two daughters, Sarah and Katherine.
