Patron saint, king, martyr, God with us. This is how the late Oswald Emmanuel Romilly was described by Bishop Rawle Douglin at the thanksgiving service for his life yesterday.

Romilly was buried at the Mucurapo cemetery. He was 91.

As he gave the final sermon, Douglin stated that the church was Romilly's engine room where he got inspiration from having Eucharist with his fellow parishioners. He got his strength from God. This strength he demonstrated through encouragement, guidance, assistance, and prodding of those with whom he came into contact.

The congregation was asked to reflect on the loss of a friend and also to reflect on the faithful life led by Romilly, faithfulness to family and friends.

"We would be able to change the sort of news that appears in the newspapers and also change the world, if we were to demonstrate this type of faithfulness," the bishop said.

Daughter Dr. Pat Romilly, who delivered the eulogy, described him as "The quintessential African-Trinidadian, tycoon of industry." She pointed out that his contributions to Trinidad society were profound and it was nearly impossible for the full implications to be calculated.

As a long-serving secondary school principal he touched many lives including those of House Speaker Hector McClean, Douglin, William Demas and Karl Hudson-Phillips. Though Romilly acquired sophistication during his life, he was a country boy at heart, she said. The first time he visited Port of Spain in the 1920s to take part in an athletic meet he rode a donkey cart.

Oswald Emmanuel Romilly died of natural causes at his Woodbrook home last Wednesday. Family and friends came from as far as Vancouver, Canada; Brooklyn, New York and Barbados to pay their final respects yesterday.

The service which took place at St Crispin's Anglican Church, Woodbrook, was officiated by Douglin, Canon Winston Lamont and Canon Knolly Clarke.

A collection was taken for the St Crispin's Home for the Aged.

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(Excerpt from the eulogy)

By virtue of his life-long distinguished service as a secondary school principal Oswald Romilly is in the words of Lloyd Best the quintessential "tycoon of industry".

According to best, "The tycoons of industry in this country have been the primary head teachers, the men who held the precious ladder which let our fathers out the hatch - first the College Exhibition and the Island Scholarship supreme…black people's investment was in education, our business was the school."

Oswald Romilly deserves recognition because he invested his abundant energies into a lifetime of service educating the nation's young. His contributions to Trinidadian society are profound; it is impossible to calculate the full implications of his work. How many lives were saved by the doctors he educated, how many cases were won by the lawyers, etc. The national and international distinctions achieved by several of the students he educated and inspired to win exhibitions - Vidia Naipaul, Karl Hudson-Phillips, Patrick Solomon, Knolly Clarke, Demas and countless thousands of others - clearly attest to his exceptional success as an educator.

During his childhood, commerce and the elite professions were beyond the scope of he average black child. Teaching was one of the few important occupations open to young black men. A significant number of the black middle class were either teachers or the children of teachers. Teachers made it possible for an emerging black and coloured middle class to assert its claim to political leadership and to effect social change in Trinidad and Tobago.

All of us, who have great pride in our accomplishments, are forever indebted to the likes of Oswald Romilly, his brother Reginald, Teacher Bailey and the entire tradition of African-Trinidadian educators dating back to John Jacob Thomas in the 19^th century. Why do we take them for granted until they are no longer available? Why do we not see the forest but for the trees. Can we afford to give to posterity a weaker heritage than the one we received? If so, then we do not deserve the opportunities which were made available through the sustained and hard-fought struggles of these "tycoons of industry."