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MANNING’S PAST STUDENT ASSOCIATION, NEW YORK CHAPTER HONORS EIGHT WESTMORELITES

On Sunday June 8, 2003 at its 16th Anniversary Awards Luncheon at Ramada Hotel, JFK Airport, the Alumni Association of the oldest high school in Jamaica highlighted the business acumen; academic achievements, and athletic prowess of the nominees for this special acknowledgment. Those individuals were D. Owen “Hurry Hurry” Sinclair, O.D., Custos Rotulorum of the parish, (state); Rovan (Duba) George Locke, Ph. D.; Horace George (Skip) Levy, M.D.; Yvonne Gardener, Esquire; Yvonne Williams McKenzie, R.N., Zenobia Fonsekia Whyte-Kelly, R.N.; and, Monica B. Mullings, MSC.
    Although the Custos Rotulorum never had the fortunate opportunity to attend this historic institution, he has been the most successful entrepreneur within the parish. In the four decades he has resided there, he has moved from a Kingston weekly cloth vendor to a financial mogul with a chain of stores in every parish. This pioneering entrepreneur outdistanced his competitors from the early sixties and established roots in the parish. He moved from the main corner of the bustling market by the seaside, to Brooks’ Bakery, a block away, and finally into Davis’ first floor at the corner of Beckford Street/Lewis Street. His majestic residence is directly opposite from that former store, and he has continued to do business across from that location.
    He is affectionately known as “Hurry Hurry” due to him telling his customers to hurry up and buy the clothing materials on the ground before he packs up to go back to Kingston. He has played significant roles in the economic, political and philanthropic arenae within the parish. He stands heads and shoulders over everyone within the parish for his numerous financial contributions to social, educational and cultural activities throughout the parish. Certainly, he is most deserving of the honors the Past Students Association bestowed on him.
    Similarly to Custos Sinclair, the tall and attractive Monica B. Mullings never attended Manning’s. She belongs to that long line of Jamaicans who achieved academic excellence by moving from “Big School” to Teacher’s College. In her case, it was the revered Mr. Hease’s government sponsored Primary School then onwards to Mico Teacher’s College where she graduated with a diploma in education. She returned to the parish and taught at Manning’s prior to her permanent stay in New York. She has taken advantage of the North American educational system, graduating from Pace University with a Bachelor’s degree in education; a Master of Science degree in Guidance Counseling and a Master of Science degree in Management from the Polytechnic University. She is very active in the Manning’s Past Students Association and in the numerous Westmoreland voluntary organizations in New York, which seek funding for health and educational institutions at home. 
    Over the past three decades in New York, she has been a consummate participant in the school system and in her Brunswick community. During that time, she put together workshops on careers, health, parental involvement and peer crisis intervention that allowed for her students to improve their grades, prevent teenage pregnancy and juvenile delinquency, and for them to enhance their self-esteem. On numerous occasions, she has received awards for her sterling services to the children and adults of the Brunswick community. She has the distinctive honor of being elected Secretary and later President of the Pennsylvania Avenue State Association. 
    Both Yvonne Williams-McKenzie and Zenobia Fonseki White-Kelly are alumnae who have left their mark on the nursing arena in New York. Yvonne, a recipient of the W.I.S.Co Scholarship to University College of Nursing (UIWI Mona, Kingston), migrated to “the Big Apple” in the mid 1960’s where she continued her education in the nursing field, specializing in Mental Hygiene and Administration. In 1990, she and five of her nursing colleagues established a string of Health Agencies, which is a key facility for registered nurses, LPN’s and Nursing Aides for hospitals and nursing homes for the five boroughs of New York. This has grown to become the Alternate Home Healthcare Agency, Inc. of Nursing Professionals and Medical Facilities for the homebound. She has been married to the affable Basil (Sunny) McKenzie for 33 years. They are the proud parents of four daughters, Lia, Marie, Debbie and Tara, extended family members, sons-in-law, Ardale and Leon and three grandchildren, Cheyenne, Antonio and Gabriel.
    Zenobia hails from the rural district of Grange Hill. She is a graduate of the Kingston School of Nursing, Leeds University Hospital School of Nursing (London), and London University School of Nursing, where she specialized in pre-natal care. She relocated from London to New York over the past two decades. She has found time from her hectic nursing activities, to be an active participant in her Alumniae Association, and the New York Library System’s Adult Education program. She has developed a foundation in memory of her parents, Gillian and Rosetta. Two scholarships have already been given to students attending her alma mater and in the very near future there will be another beneficiary from this foundation. This highly religious Alumna is favorable spoken of in her childhood district of Porters Mountain because of her voluntary activities abroad on behalf of the Methodist Church and the local Primary School.
    In less than a decade in New York, Yvonne Gardner is a very successful Alumna with an impressive academic record. She began her professional career as a teller at Chemical Bank, presently known as J.P. Morgan. She rose rapidly within this financial institution, culminating in Branch Control Assistant. She combined a hectic banking career with a heavy course load at Pace University, where she attained a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Social Science. She pursued legal studies at Seton Hall University where she was a successful candidate of its Juris Doctors degree. There, her colleagues elected her President of the Black Law Students Association and the Center for Social Justice rewarded her with its Pro Bono Service Certificate of Excellence.
Trevor “Pike” Locke was given the responsibilities of introducing and giving the awards to Dr. Rovan George Locke and Horace Levy. In 1965, this trio was part of the first Manning’s soccer team to defeat Cornwall College in the first fifty years of the DaCosta Competition. Horace was Captain and Center Forward, Pike Locke at Right Half, and Rovan “Duba” Locke at Right Back. Pike Locke, with the current President, Marjorie Foster Amos and its Founding Director, the diminutive, controversial and tireless organizer, Anton Tomlinson have been powerful energizing forces in this Past Student Association’s prominent position in the National Organization of Past Students Associations headquartered in New York. This embryonic national organization has the potential to become the most influential lobbying force on Jamaican politics at home and abroad. Tragically, the Patterson regime depends on the PNP’s affiliated Progressive League for advise on the rapidly changing faces of the expatriate community in New York and elsewhere.
    Duba, as Dr. Rovan Locke is affectionately known by present and past students of his alma mater and by the broader parishioners, capped the prestigious L.A. Prescod Education Award for “Outstanding Academic and Entrepreneurial Achievement, exemplifying the Best in the Tradition of Manning’s as a Foundation for Excellence”. The Prescod Era, 1950-1962, has been regarded as the cornerstone in shaping the institution as an enviable academic institution in Jamaica. On the other hand, the Guyanese born R.M. Nicholson was just as successful in molding his students as the Barbadian born, the erudite L.A. Prescod. For Duba, R.M. Nicholson was his surrogate father since his dad passed away in June 1960. With the Canadian Jim Morris as his track coach, in 1965, Duba shocked the nation by defeating the two Kingston College favorites, Lloyd McLean and Frank “Bola” Morant at the National Stadium in the High School Championships in the Class 2 (under 17) 440 yards. At this championship, Duba prevented a complete sweep by Kingston College of all the running events. Manning’s then and now, has the tradition of being a school of top quarter-milers with Cosmond Vaughan in 1961 becoming the first High School athlete to break the 50.0 barrier at Sabina Park. Horace Levy would follow in that tradition by winning the Class 2, 440 yards in record time at the 1960 National Championships. 
    Duba continued his track career by placing third at the 1966 National Championships in the 880 yards and winning a scholarship to Eastern Michigan University. He went on to graduate school at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, where he received his Ph. D. in Political Science. After a short tenure teaching in Nigeria, he returned to Jamaica and North American to pursue his journalistic and entrepreneurial interests. It is in this context that the New York Chapter of the Manning’s Past Students Association deemed it fit to show its appreciation of this defiant and principled alumnus.
    Perhaps, it can be said that Horace George Levy, M.D., is the most successful, financially of the R.M. Nicholson’s era. This diminutive athlete with sheer powers in his feet, had an obsession with academic and athletic excellence from his earliest days at Frome Primary School, later at Manning’s, Excelsior High School in Kingston, and at Nebraska University.
    Horace distinguished himself on the track by running for Manning’s in the Under 17 age Group, namely Class 2, and at Excelsior in Class 1. He as known as the speed merchant in the sprints (100-200-440 yards). He won both the 100’s and 200’s in the Under 17 Group and blazed his way to glory for Excelsior both at National Championships and at Penn Relays in 1997, where he anchored the Under 19, 4X100 Relays to victory. His impressive academic records at Manning’s and Excelsior contributed significantly to his full athletic scholarship to Nebraska University in Lincoln, Nebraska.
    At the collegiate level, Horace represented Jamaica in the 100’s and 200 meters at the 1972 Olympics held in Munich, Germany. At Nebraska University, his accelerated academic programs led him to finish is undergraduate program in three years. He became the first, and still is the only athlete on scholarship to enter Nebraska’s School of Medicine where he graduated with a specialty in Otolaryngology (Ear, Nose and Throat).
    Horace did his internship and residency at the Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, Michigan in the mid 1970’s. In less than five years, he moved on to become the Staff Physician at this medical institution and Adjunct Professor (1980-82) in Otolaryngology at the University of Michigan. This Ear, Nose and Throat surgeon is highly acclaimed by his colleagues. He has served as Associate Fellow of the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery; Follow at American Academy of Otolaryngology for head and neck surgery; Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, and Chief of Staff at Mercy Memorial College in Monroe, Michigan. He has published extensively in medical journals and lectured throughout the global community, in places such as Barcelona, Spain; at the Thirteenth Congress of the International Society for Dermatological Surgery, in Paris; and, in Las Vegas at the American Academy of Otolaryngology. 
    Equally impressive is his business acumen in Corporate America. He has extensive investments in the software industry since his internship and Residency at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, Michigan. In the 1970’s he was a pioneering Black entrepreneur on the University of Michigan campus in providing software supplies to the more than 30,000 students. This family owned business, where he remains the Chairman, has relocated to Detroit, where it has grown into one of the major suppliers of software supplies for the mid-western states. 
    In the past six months, Dr. Levy has moved aggressively into the medical billing industry with his new company Endue Net. This is a major financial investment on his part to provide the necessary software for maximum efficiency in the health care industry, resulting in better patient care and greater profitability for hospitals and physicians. 
    In the State of Michigan, the corporate giants seek out Dr. Horace Levy to sit on their boards. Presently, he is a broad member for the corporate giant Lazy Boy and of Telenetics, an automatic meter-reading corporation that also provides communication infrastructures for European airlines and banks. Dr. Levy remains the easygoing accessible person he was from his earliest days at Manning’s. He does not allow his academic and financial achievements to distance him from his family, childhood friends and colleagues. 
    At this function on Sunday June 7, 2003, Dr. Joan Grant-Boyd was the Master of Ceremony. This was a well-attended event. In the audience there were Gloria (Betty) Gayle, Marjorie Street, Jennifer Chambers, Winsome Burke, former police officer Mitchel and his wife, Sunny McKenzie, Saddie Jolly, Rosemarie Jolly and Errol Titus.

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