EDITORIAL - Maurice Facey was a quiet titan

IT WAS evident that Maurice Facey, who died this week at age 87, was not chest-thumping man or one for having his name set in marquee and emblazoned in lights.

But for more than half a century, since he, in 1958, spearheaded the sale of his father's company, C. B. Facey Ltd, and forayed into property development, Maurice Facey was an ageless titan of Jamaican business. His achievements might cause even substantial men to suffer inferiority complexes.

At the time of his death, Mr Facey was still the chairman of PanJamaican Investment Trust (PanJam), the family-controlled company that holds stakes in many of Jamaica's most profitable firms. And he was still leading from the front, taking risks and betting on Jamaica.

But knowing that he was the man behind PanJam is not sufficiently the story. That understates Maurice Facey's vision and the depth and breadth of his activities.

For example, it is not popularly known or remembered that it was Maurice Facey, using a vehicle called Jamaica Property Company, who developed the Manor Park Plaza, the high-rise Manor Court apartments and many residences in the immediate vicinity. Or, that it was his company that was behind the development of the Air Jamaica building and the Scotia Centre in downtown Kingston, or the iconic Abbey Court apartments in St Andrew that, like Manor Court, redefined how Jamaicans might live.

Most defining achievement

Perhaps his most defining achievement was the transformation of the former horse-racing course into what is Jamaica's corporate business district of New Kingston with edifices such as Mutual Life, First Life and PanCaribbean buildings, the Courtleigh Hotel and CIBC Centre, among others.

That, for most people, would be a lifetime's work. Yet Maurice Facey, as his business protégé Richard Byles noted, "tried everything" - tourism, manufacturing, insurance, banking, and agriculture. He was largely successful.

Maurice Facey's passion for business was not driven only by the potential returns from his ventures. For he believed that success in business was a means to an end: the development of Jamaica. And not for the benefit of the few.

So he found time and energy for not-for-profit ventures as well as projects for the advancement of the creative imagination. For instance, he spearheaded the launch, and up to his death, was chairman of the Kingston Restoration Company (KRC), which acquires and rehabilitates derelict buildings in gritty downtown Kingston. He served on the committee that established Jamaica's National Museum, on whose board he served, and chaired, for several years.

Influenced, perhaps, by his artist wife Valerie and sculptress daughter Laura, Maurice Facey was an avid collector of art. In addition, PanJam's charitable arm, the Cecil Boswell Facey Foundation, offered scholarships to prospective artists and generally supported education. His service on the boards of charities, including the Council of the Voluntary Social Services & United Way, was legendary.

Richard Byles remarked of his mentor that "there are not many left like him from that era". We would say that there have not been many like Maurice Facey from any era.

Indeed, Maurice Facey would have been successful in any era, and, we say, in any country. It perhaps is the measure of the man that he never had his name placed on any of the edifices he built.

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