To
God we belong and to Him we return. And so we are asked to take the passing of
loved ones with as much understanding and acceptance as possible. That said, I
cannot help but feel deeply saddened by the passing of Mr. Willie Carr, former
teacher and principal of Gambia High School. May God bless his soul and his
memory in eternity, for Mr. Carr was a very good and decent man if ever there
was one.
Mr.
Carr was my European history teacher at the Gambia High School Sixth Form. And
he was one of the best teachers I have ever had. Some of the creatively
evocative phrases he used as he taught us European history are still fresh in
my memory: phrases like “Gentlemen, saddle your horses, France is in revolution
once more” uttered by a famous European diplomat at the outbreak of the 1830
revolutions in Europe and which Mr. Carr always rendered with a dramatic
flourish. His vivid descriptions of the exploits of Garibaldi and the Red
Shirts and of the “blood and iron” politics of Bismarck the Iron Chancellor
fired our imaginations and inspired us to love his classes to no end.
Unassuming,
clear and concise in his delivery, Mr. Carr enriched his lectures with
captivating quotations, telling anecdotes and vivid imagery that always made
his European history classes an absolute delight to attend. It was amazing that
Mr. Carr was also a great mathematician, for rarely do we find scholars who are
both historians and mathematicians. Mr. Carr was such a scholar, in addition to
being a highly regarded and humble man of God, a Reverend.
Mr.
Carr also combined an unmistakable strictness with unfailing gentleness. He was
as strict as he was gentle, and one could not fail to notice how these two
qualities were almost indistinguishable in his cheerful and activepersonality.
Clearly, there is much more I do not know about the great personal qualities of
Mr. Carr. But what I saw as a student at Gambia High School is enough to affirm
that Mr. Carr was a great human being whose humane character rubbed off of me
and left lasting, life-enhancing impressions upon my life. I will forever
remain grateful to him and to God who willed our encounter at Gambia High
School.
My
condolences to his family, his relatives, his former colleagues and the entire
Gambia High School community, and to everyone whose life this great man has
touched both inside and outside of his work as a teacher and a reverend. May
his soul be abundantly blessed in the Divine Presence unto which he has
returned.
