Oliver Clarke fondly remembered by Torontonians

TORONTONIANS ARE fondly remembering the late media magnate and banking pioneer Oliver Clarke former chairman of The RJRGLEANER Communications Group and Jamaica National Group.

Emile Spence, interim head of JN Bank’s Canada Representative Office, said Clarke, 75, who died on May 16, made a major impact on Jamaica.

“He’s part of our history as it relates to the building- society movement, as it relates to media. He has transformed the landscape of both, I think.”

Describing him as a fighter for press freedom, Spence said that Jamaicans had a better understanding of the role of the press through Clarke’s leadership as he fought to maintain its independence.

He noted that when Clarke returned to Jamaica and joined the then Westmoreland Building Society, one of the first things that happened was the creation of the Jamaica National Building Society through the merger of four building societies. Spence said this, in itself, was a very innovative move in which these mergers created a big entity that was able to serve the entire island.

“The history of Jamaica National moving from then a single building society to now a very large financial conglomerate was under his chairmanship,” he said.

Spence said Clarke was “a man full of ideas and initiatives, which would improve the lives of Jamaicans.”

He noted that Clarke always wanted JN to maintain its neutrality, being owned by its members, and did not want it to become a private entity.

DIDN’T HOLD GRUDGES

“He believed in people and wanted people first. He had a very dry sense of humour, and no ill was meant when he gave his jokes. If you’re soft, you will feel hurt by it, but he’s not one to hold grudges. He never intended his barbs to be harmful to anybody.”

Michael Van Cooten, founder and publisher of Pride News Magazine, says the Caribbean media has lost “one of its untiring advocates and humble trailblazers and leaders”.

He said in his personal interactions “with Mr Clarke, I always found him to be extremely personable and genuinely unpretentious in spite of his immense wealth and power.

“You’ll notice that I addressed him as ‘Mr Clarke,’ never Oliver. That was because of the high regard and respect I felt towards him, having always looked up to him as a mentor from whom I gained tremendous inspiration.”

Arnold Auguste, founder and publisher of Share, Canada’s largest ethnic newspaper, expressed his condolences to Clarke’s family.

“In my interactions with Oliver Clarke, I found him to be a true gentleman. I respected his business acumen and the strengths he brought to his job at The Gleaner,” said Auguste.

“Oliver Clarke was certainly a Caribbean icon. His business acumen was well known and his love for Jamaica immeasurable as his roots ran deep in the parish of Westmoreland,” said Donette Chin-Loy Chang, a philanthropist and patron of the UWI Toronto Benefit Gala.

She said she met Clarke in the 1980s upon returning to Jamaica as a communications consultant to the prime minister and then government.

“You may not always agree with his style of doing business, but he certainly made a mark in the media and financial-services industry. My condolences to Monica and their daughter, Alex, and the family. Walk good, Oliver. You made your mark.”

Neil Armstrong