Tributes to late economist Frank Rampersad poured in yesterday, with many hailing him as a great son of the region.

A former permanent secretary in the Finance Ministry and holder of a lengthy portfolio of public service achievements, Rampersad, 69, died on Monday afternoon. He had been ailing for some time. A funeral may take place later this week, following the arrival of relatives from abroad.

Patrick Manning, political leader of the PNM, said yesterday: "Mr. Rampersad has been a distinguished public servant, having held critical positions in the public service in the office of the Prime Minister and in finance. At a time when professional economists were hard to come by, his voice in the conduct of Government affairs was very significant indeed.

"He exerted considerable influence on PNM policies in the 1960s, '70s and '80s. His passing brings to an end an era, and the country - and indeed the region - would be much poorer for his demise."

Former PNM Minister Errol Mahabir said Rampersad was one of a group of excellent public servants whose work laid the foundation upon which T&T is based today. "He was an exemplary public servant, a brilliant economist and a loyal citizen of T&T. Frank was never a 'yes-man'. He expressed his views frankly and with conviction. I'm deeply grieved at his passing, a feeling I'm sure is shared by many, many others in the country, the Caribbean and the Commonwealth," Mahabir added.

Former PNM Minister Kamaluddin Mohammed said: "We have lost a very prominent son. He came from a very distinguished family and he was the top economist in T&T. He and William Demas were (Eric) Williams' two right-hand men.

"Frank was a very intelligent, mature man and had a great instinct for projecting future economic trends locally and abroad. He gave great service to the government and people of T&T. We hope the younger men following will emulate his footsteps."

Economist Lloyd Best said Rampersad's place in history is secure: "He was a first class economist and technocrat. He made his name first as an economic statistician at the CSO and gave T&T a very high reputation for its statistics in the very early days of national self-government. He produced a very fine piece of work on that period, in the CSO papers, a fine reference work for the economic history of the period."

Best said he remembered Rampersad in a more personal way since both came from Tacarigua, both were the sons of cane farmers and both had attended schools in the area.

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Former Commonwealth Secretary General, Sir Shridath Ramphal, has described Frank Rampersad as "a resolute and tireless professional who placed his immense qualities at the disposal of Trinidad and Tobago, the Caribbean, Commonwealth and developing world."

In a statement from London yesterday, Ramphal said he was deeply saddened by Rampersad's death.

"I knew him and worked with him in all those spheres and I could not have wished to have had a more loyal and competent companion in our several endeavours," he added.

"Within the Caribbean, he had given service of great quality and commitment to the University of the West Indies right up to his very last days. Frank Rampersad has made a contribution f incomparable worth which will continue to assist our many efforts for years to come and to inspire a new generation to the standards that he set and from which he never faltered. The Caribbean has lost a very great son."

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In the weeks leading up to his death, Frank Rampersad was still hard at work writing papers on the economic survival of small developing states for the Central Bank.

His last dissertation was used by Central Bank governor Winston Dookeran, who presented the former economist's findings to the World Bank at a meeting a week ago.

It was Rampersad, the one-time Economic Adviser to the late Prime Minister George Chambers, who "set the foundation" for this country's now "mature relationship" with the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, said Dookeran.

Recalling the days when he worked with him at UWI, Dookeran remembered Rampersad as a "deeply professional" man who guarded the privacy of his personal life.

Frank Barsotti, Rampersad's close neighbour and former colleague, also called to mind the "quiet dignity" of the man who spent 45 years of his life in the public service.

The Republic Bank chairman, along with Rampersad and former Central Bank governor and regional icon William Demas (who died last year), was among a cadre of public servants who worked together at Whitehall under the country's first Prime Minister Dr. Eric Williams.

But Rampersad's relationship with Williams became strained in the mid-1970s after he was replaced as Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Finance following a disagreement between the two.

Barsotti was his successor.

"He fell out with Williams, I don't know what about. They never had the same relationship again. Frank was always an independent thinker. He never bowed or went under to a minister," said Barsotti.

The move which led Rampersad to take up a position with then Commonwealth Secretary General Sir Shridath Ramphal at the Commonwealth Secretariat did not disrupt his professional and personal ties with Barsotti.

Indeed, the chairman of the country's largest bank commended his fellow economist as the man who put together the first set of information about the income the employment levels of Trinidad and Tobago.

"He was virtually responsible for building the national income statistics which was used in measuring GDP, employment, investment. He published several tables, which I think are still used now. This country has lost a very good economist."

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