Good morning, Church. First let me tell you that I have never done this before. Not for family, friend or colleague. Well, Earle was my only brother, but we had a sister, Hope who passed in 2008 and I had a look at her Thanksgiving programme recently and realised her service was on May 22 in 2008 and here we are, almost to the day, 18 years later, saying goodbye to my other sibling. In these past few months Earle often reminded me that it was only the two of us left and now it’s one.
Earle has always been my Go-To person to explain the family connections that I was not as familiar with. I really relied on him for that. You see he was almost five years older than I am and that partly explains this but now with him gone, please do not be upset if I appear to be not as familiar with some persons here who I should know better. So, if I am found wanting, don’t hesitate to help me make the connection.
If I was to bet on which groups are represented here, I would say, after family of course, that there are some Kingston College men here, and some from Calabar where I went, some Kiwanians, some from the Land Surveying profession, some Lodge members, some from the community of St. Margaret’s Church, maybe some originally from Falmouth, Trelawny and some from the Track & Field community, more specifically the Champs community.
Earle touched a lot of people
My earliest recollection of anything begins when our family moved from Falmouth where I was born to Kingston, and more specifically,Stony Hill. That was in 1951 and I would have been three at the time, so Earle would have been about eight and Hope would have been around ten. I think we had to spend some time elsewhere initially because where we were going to live was still being renovated. Most of our growing up years were spent in Stony Hill, first at what was then called the Approved School which was a home for boys in need of care and protection, maybe some were a bit wayward. That is where a HEART Academy is today. Now both of our parents were Pharmacists, but back then they were called Dispensers, which led to people sometimes asking for Mr. Spencer the Dispenser. At this school community there were several families that we grew up with because one of the parents worked there like ours. And they had children our age and we all grew up together. There were the Gages, the Phillips’s and the Jones’s although they were a bit younger. At different times either one of our parents was the resident Pharmacist so we lived at the school until our parents built their own house also in Stony Hill.
One of the main features at that school was a playing field, well grassed, that served as a football field and also a cricket pitch. The only thing Sabina Park had over us was the Stands and we did not need that. Earle was not too much into football but he loved cricket and bowled a pretty good leg spin. He was left-handed so he bowled the orthodox type not back of the wrist leg spin. In the cricket season when there were no formal matches being played, it was time for keshi shubi in the evenings and the boys at the school were always the ones we played with, not just the families. In those days we were using cork and tar balls, the pitch was not prepared as it would have been for an official match and flinging was par for the course and we would play until it got really dark. No gloves, no pads and helmets were not even invented then, but no one ever got hurt. But it was fun and you know the refrain “All who field and no get no bat” but then there was always tomorrow. I won’t go into the football because as I said, Earle was not too into football.
Earle went to Kingston Collge around 1955 or 1956. He was in the choir there and I remember the days when KC and St. Hughes joined together to perform some Gilbert & Sullivan Operettas and Earle performed in the chorus. I went along to watch them and I was so enthralled that we used to sing the various lead parts at home because we both enjoyed it so much. I am pretty sure that the first one that they did was The Gondoliers and this just opened up a new appreciation for another art form that we were not previously exposed to. Our favourite from the Gondoliers was the song about the Duke of Plaza-Toro who in enterprise of martial kind when there was any fighting, he led his Regiment from behind, he found it less exciting but when away his Regiment ran, his place was at the Fore O That Celebrated, Cultivated, Underrated Nobleman, the Duke of Plaza-Toro.
And then came the chorus.
I think they also did The Pirates of Penzance. These were wonderful productions and although Earle did not play any of the lead roles he was an integral part of the cast and knew all the songs. I can still remember two of the leads on the KC side, Douglas Ffolkes and Karl Dalhouse.
I am sure that most of you do not know that Earle and I used to sing together in public. No big stage but like a church hall venue in Stony Hill, places like that. I remember one of our favourite songs was this song by the Blues Busters, some of you may remember their song BEHOLD. I can’t remember how this all came about but it did.
Earle also represented KC at Champs in the Discus in Class 2. And for a very long time he continued his association with Champs in two ways, photography and as part of the announcing team in the stadium at Champs. I am sure that some of you who knew Earle knew that he was a stickler for proper pronunciation. His English was impeccable. And he had the kind of voice that once he was on the mike, you knew it was him. He always said that calling a race was not his thing. Announcing was his thing. And he always looked back fondly on those days that were shared with persons like Bobby Fray, Ed Wallace, Teddy Price and others. And you know that at Champs, they usually honoured one or two persons each year for their contributions over the years, well one year it was Earle’s turn to be honoured.
On a couple of occasions when he was asked to announce at development meets he would ask me if I wanted to come and I did on a couple of occasions.
Some people may think that because Earle went to KC and I went to Calabar that that would be a source of conflict in the Spencer household and even after we were both on our own but that was never the case. If KC won Champs I would congratulate him and if it was Calabar he would do the same.
And about his photography, Earle was big into photography, not just sports but portrait photography and he used to do a lot of weddings. I remember him entering what must have been Festival competitions in photography and he did win recognition for some of his work. When our parents built their home in Stony Hill, we were still living at home and they included a section that would be his dark room because he also developed the film and printed his photographs.
And when the book Champs’ 100 came out, I know that Earle was particularly proud that some of his photos over the years were included. In fact. There was an article in the Jamaica Observer at the time that after acknowledging the main contributors behind the book had this to say and I quote “though it could be considered a labour of love as many others, most notably Earle Spencer donated photos and images from their personal archives to the book”.
Incidentally Earle took a picture of me starting the Class 3 Relay at Champs for Calabar at Sabina Park but that photo did not make it to the Champs 100 book, understandably. I have no idea where that picture is today. I am not 100% sure but I think he gave me my first camera so I used to take a lot of pictures but after every cell phone had a camera and selfies became the thing, there was less of a need for me to take as many pictures as I used to.
As you might have noticed, Earle had a way of trying to involve me in a number of things that he was involved in. Like this time when he had started doing land surveying. He was not a commissioned land surveyor yet but he had this assignment to do. I think it was a topo or something like that and he asked me to come along with him and so I agreed. So, he was the person behind the theodolite and I was the person holding the staff and if you know anything about surveying, it’s the person with the staff who has most of the climbing to do and who has to walk all over the place, hills and valleys included. So, at the end of that day, I made a decision that I was never going to be a surveyor and I ended up choosing civil engineering. So, when I came back from St. Augustine and joined Public Works, what do you think was my first assignment? Well first, I was put in the Land surveying Department and my first assignment was to pick up a theodolite and go out to the country and lay out roads. So, my early exposure to surveying proved to be positive.
Earle went on to become one of the leading and most respected Commissioned Land Surveyors in Jamaica, with his own practice, having gone the route of attending the North East London Polytechnic where he attained his BSc. In Land Surveying Sciences, Upper 2 nd Class Honours. As a member of the Land Surveying Association of Jamaica, he served as their President and later was made a Life Member.
Another Organization that was dear to Earle’s heart was the Kiwanis Club of Kingston of which he became a member in 1986. I also followed in his footsteps and joined in 1988. He went on to serve as President in the 2005-2006 Administrative Year. And to date, in the club’s 62- year history, we are the only pair of brothers to have served as President and achieved Distinguished Status.
Some of you may have noticed recently for the first time that Earle is also named Stewart and I think I need to explain that because our sister Hope was also named Stewart. Hope who was the eldest was Hope Patricia Stewart Spencer, then Earle was Earle William Stewart Spencer and I am Alphonse Clifford Stewart Spencer. You see Stewart was our mother’s maiden name and that is why all the children were named Stewart. I am not sure if this was our Mother’s idea or Grandma’s, but my niece Klao told me that it was a Spanish custom, to preserve the names of both families. So, I decided to do a little extra research and found that the original Spanish tradition was to put the mothers maiden name last so we could have ended up with Spencer Stewart.
I visited with Earle the evening before he passed and he didn’t look good. He was not very responsive. I was told that he had thrown up earlier and that it was one of his worst days. I tried to see if I could engage him about the recent World Relays and how Elaine got the baton second and ran past the Canadian and then shut it down but he was not with me. So, then I just held his hand and continued to sit with him. Sometimes his eyes drifted off and I looked closely to see if he was breathing and he was. When I went home that night I wondered how much longer he could stay like that. Then in the morning I got a call from Sheldon and I knew. Diahann called a few minutes later.
I didn’t bother to tell you about the time Earle cut me with a knife in the backyard of Grandma’s home in Falmouth. It was an accident, or the time when he was almost killed when a bicycle hit him down unconscious at Constant Spring. I think he was about 12 or 13 years old and it was Hope who was there also and acted responsibly by attracting the attention of one of our neighbours who was driving past and he took Earle quickly to the hospital. Or when Earle had one of his cars from the early days, it may have been the Renault or a VW but Earle saw a wheel running by itself in front of his car only to realise that it was his tire and then there were the times when he would go out to parties and when he came home he would insist on waking me up so that he could tell me about the good time he had and I as the good brother would try to keep my eyes open and listen.
Earle, we thought we would have had you for a while longer but God knows best.
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