OBITUARY: Ian McDonald, former GuySuCo official and literacy figure

Former top executive management official of the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GUYSUCO) Ian McDonald has died, leaving behind a legacy of sterling contributions across the Caribbean.

He was 93 years old.

The Trinidad-born McDonald worked for several decades in Guyana’s sugar industry dating back to the period of Bookers and then the nationalised GUYSUCO as a senior industry executive.

He later went on to serve as Chief Executive Officer of the Sugar Association of the Caribbean (SAC).

McDonald was also a former chairman of Guyana Publications Inc., then publishers of the recently closed privately-owned independent Stabroek News newspaper alongside its founder David DeCaires and late attorney Miles Fitzpatrick.

President Irfaan Ali said he was saddened by the passing of McDonald, “a literary figure of worth and one of the Caribbean’s distinguished sons.”

“It is sad that he should leave us now, when the hour is so dark and our nation longs for the wisdom that flowed from his pen. At this time when grief drapes our nation, we need more than ever his words to steady us, to console us, to remind us that even in loss, there is the promise of renewal,” referring to the MV Barima ferry tragedy that has unofficially claimed more than 100 persons.

In 1997 he received an honorary degree of doctorate of letters from the University of the West Indies in recognition of his services to Caribbean sugar, sport and literature.

He was a cricket enthusiast and was the only person from Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago to have played tennis at Wimbledon.