TRIBUTE TO A FORMER PRINCIPAL, Rev Willie E.E. Carr

The Late Reverend Willie E.E.Carr

                                 

Rev Carr was a great Principal of our time at the Gambia Senior Secondary School, Banjul, the Gambia. A man all teachers amicably related with and a great architect of the sustainable best results our school produced when we were teaching there.

He gave up his school for us to run summer classes for refugee students in the sub-region of West Africa at the time the region had civil unrest. We later transformed the pilot project as a school. The project was manned by voluntary Teachers Association (VOTA).

Through the support of the late Rev Carr, we wrote to Principles and Headteachers to absorb those meant for Primary Schools and Junior Schools but only maintained the students meant to sit their GCSE and "A" Levels Examinations in the academic year 1998 to 1999.

Rev Carr gave us a space for free in his school to run our School for the Academically Displaced (SAD) and absorbed all the "A" Level Students in the school. The GCSE students trained by our volunteers got nine division one out of eleven in the country.

Thanks to Rev Carr and the many volunteer teachers like Bernard Ngebuva, James Minah, Sam Siaka, Mohamed Mansaray, Jeremiah Soko, Messr Dior (Ivory Coast), Leonard Ngbloh, and the many Gambian, Sierra Leonean, Ghanaian and Nigerian teachers who made the project a success.

 Humility highly matters and paramount to our lives.  Reverend Carr was a philanthropist. He nurtured and sponsored many vulnerable students in the school to realise their dreams.

Rev Carr served as a mentor and indirect father to me and the many young teachers in the school and beyond.  He supported the publications of my books in Economics and Business Management for Senior Schools and Tertiary institutes and even made it to be part of the booklist for many schools in The Gambia.

The late Rev Carr was open to initiatives and any goodies from teachers and students as long it was for the good and progress of the school.

I could remember approaching him with the idea of opening a Business Club in the school together with my predecessor, Dawood Adjei, who was head of commercial studies.

Rev Carr embraced the initiative and gave us the go-ahead. The Business Club was meant to provide practical experience to students. We took the canteen as a hub for students' research and using the data for our classroom teaching. Rev Carr was always there to give us all the support and autonomy needed to make the project a success.

He was an exemplary leader and having the leadership traits that are unique to find. He never compromised the quality of grades needed to enter our school and ensured that departments worked as a team to produce the best results for the country.

He had an open-door policy and his office was opened to everyone. He would ensure that teachers have the requisite resources to deliver their teaching effectively and a great motivator to his staff and students. 

Rev Carr retired as a Principal to take up full-time preaching at the Trinity Methodist Church, Serrekunda, The Gambia.

Information reaching me from a distance indicated that the late Rev Carr conducted an online sermon for his flocks or members of the church on Sunday, 26 April 2020. He died the same Sunday in active service for God.

Great men die but their philanthropist and Godly souls will remain to usher the strong spirit of humility to mankind.

 Rev Carr, we will always remember you and continue to pray for your lovely wife and siblings to absorb the shock of your death and be provided with God's divine and eternal protection.

God giveth and taketh, and only HE knows best. Till we meet in the next planet if ever, rest in absolute peace.

PRINCE FODAY, UNITED KINGDOM

Former Head of Commercial Studies Department under the late Rev Willie E.E. Carr: 1999-2005