The English essayist Charles Lamb is quoted as saying: "I have had playmates. I have mad companions in my days of childhood, in my joyful school days - all, are gone, the old familiar faces." All are not yet gone for me but Frank is the latest loss. In Shakespeare's A Mid-summer's Night Dream, which Frank and I had to study in college, Theseus said: "The death of a dear friend would go near to make a man look sad.' But Frank would not want that. Today, therefore, should be a day of rejoicing for us all. This is because Frank is somewhat entitled to say like Paul in 2 Timothy: "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race. I have kept the faith."

 Indeed, all was not easy in Frank's life. Life was a struggle to the end. We first met in 1942 in Class 2A Special at St Mary's College and we did feel "very special." He came from Tacarigua Presbyterian School and I from Nelson Street RC. It was the best of times. It was the worst of times. It was the best of times and in these days the front pages of the newspapers carried only "good news."

It was the worst of times in the sense that the economics of Trinidad and Tobago were such that very few parents could have afforded the $12 a term t go to St. Mary's or QRC. It was after the great depression of the 30s and we were all poor. Some lived in St Clair - but they too were poor. In fact, some went to Burke's High School or Osmond High School, simply because it was $3 cheaper per term. We did not inherit the businesses of our fathers, and so, we were encouraged by our parents to toil upward in the night even while some of our companions slept. It was the age of wisdom.

And so, Frank was always studious, always a scholar. And when we both won House Scholarships in 1948, we rejoiced together. He was always good at maths. I loved science. After we left St Mary's I became a Customs Officer and Frank was a Clerk in the Government Post Office, and then went to the Central Statistical Office. One year later, in 1951, the then Government advertised for applications for the post of Government statistician, a new post, and the successful applicant would then be sent tot study at the London School of Economics. Unknown to each other Frank and I applied for the scholarship but I must confess that there was truly no deep commitment on my part. My academic heart was elsewhere. However, as it turned out, we were the two candidates chosen for the final interview.

Eldon Warner had just received a Government scholarship to go to Oxford and was working in the Red House in what was called at that time the "col Sec". In fact, he was the one who ceremoniously ushered us separately into the interviewing room. The Chairman of the interviewing committee was the powerful W E Boardman and the first question he asked me was: "Mr. Bartholomew, what is your definition of statistics?" To which I replied: "Well, I do not know the official one, only the colloquial one, namely, lies, damn lies and statistics!" The verdict of the committee was unanimous. Frank became the first Government statistician and the country was saved from economic ruin! The rest is history.

But we always had a great respect for each other academically, but true friendship is never always serene. We both had strong viewpoints and that led to very serious squabbles at times - but never for too long. In fact, Frank also had a great sense of humour which probably went unrecognized by those who did not know him as well as I did, and probably only saw him as a serious scholar, who was somewhat intense, inflexible and frequently dogmatic in his views. Indeed, he took his name very seriously and tended to be "frank" about many things. This sometimes got him into trouble.

Sheila can also tell you of the occasion one evening when I asked him whom he thought was the best economist. He smiled: "Apart from me, you mean?" He then teasingly quipped to Sheila: "But they say he is the best doctor, but I used to cut his tail in exams every time in college." And then he laughed, adding: "What are we having to drink?"

Now, I have always believed that the truest friends are those childhood friendships when we were all nobodies and it is difficult at times to measure true friendship in later life especially as prosperity quickly makes friends. But adversity certainly tries them.

You can usually know a man by the way he copes with a long and serious illness and this is where Frank showed his courage, hope, humour and humility. But he was the ultimate worker and even while he was enfeebled and uncomfortable, this colossus wrote a 40-page document entitled "Coping with globalization - A suggested policy package for small countries." He gave it to me to read, but as you know by now statistics and economics were never my forte. It was double Dutch to me.

But working was Frank's life and hobby. If Paradise means sitting under a tree and enjoying the beauty of God's creation, Frank will have no part of it. He would need to be working, would want to be the economic advisor to God, and would even dare suggest to Him a fiscal policy for heaven. I can just imagine the scene.

Indeed, the worst pain he has ever suffered was when, as Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Finance, he heard on a television newscast by Dr. Williams that, like others, he was required, unreasonably so in my opinion, to take the long leave which he had accumulated over the years.

But, reminiscent of the first chapter in Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities, entitled "Recalled to Life", just as he brought back Solomon Williams eventually recalled Frank to Trinidad, this time as the first President of NIHERST, and as far as he was concerned, "if you didn't like it, then"

But when George Chambers appointed me Chairman of NIHERST when Frank was President, I must confess that I was a very benign and perhaps ineffective Chairman. You see, a friend in power is a friend lost, and so, there was never any conflict between Chairman and President. For once, there were no squabbles. He certainly enjoyed his stint at NIHERST.

But while he was economic advisor not only to several Governments here but also, albeit ion a much smaller scale, to many other people like myself, he was a poor economist at home and was never preoccupied with being wealthy. This was not his priority. This was not his ethic. He was the consummate civil servant and an academic to the very end. As Bourse Securities Ltd. said in its beautiful ad in the Guardian, he was "Son of the Soil and Servant of the Country."

Why is it that good things are frequently never said of friends until they are dead. Indeed, for many, the good is oft interred with their bones. Let it not be so with Frank.

There is another side to Frank Rampersad, which gives me great satisfaction to disclose to you. I am referring to the spiritual side of a man of the Hindu faith but who was ecumenical in outlook. I wanted a scholarly assessment from a non-Christian point of view of a book, A Scientist Researches Mary, which I had written, and knowing his love for research and his brutal candour, I asked him to review the book for me. To plagiarize a well-known phrase, "I tell you solemnly," I know of no other reader, who has analyzed my work with such clarity and who intelligently questioned parts of it with such relevance and scholarship as he did.

Frank was indeed a "poor" economist, but his wealth was in his exceptionally productive life and the love and respect which Sheila, his beloved wife, Vikama and Virun, his sons in whom he was well pleased, had for him. But one's true spirituality is often private and hidden and frequently expresses itself as we grow older. After his long struggle with his illness, and realising that his time was short, he beseeched Sheila to arrange for a puja and other prayers to be said for him in their home. Indeed his last barely audible words, repeated several times, were: "Lord, forgive me." But God is not deaf and I am absolutely sure that his prayer was heard. It came from the heart of a very assertive but nonetheless humble man.

It is no coincidence that Frank is leaving us on Budget Day. You may draw your own personal conclusions! Farewell, my fried, and may you rest in peace.