ForeverMissed
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His Life

VI. Studley's Final Days

January 24, 2015

 

Support from loving friends and family kept Studley going for many years but he fell ill on December 11, 2014 and was hospitalized the next day.      

We visited him daily and he was doing quite well.   On December 23 we left him in high spirits but sadly, he passed away on Christmas Eve.   

We wish to thank the doctors and nurses who cared for him, including those at the JNF Hospital.

Studley’s classmates, friends and professional colleagues remember him as a person with high intellectual potential, as someone who was kind and helpful to them along the way, as a friend whose genuine interest in their wellbeing extended also to their own family members.

And his brothers remember him as a son who was very devoted to his parents and who loved and supported all the members of his family.

Studley was a good guy.

His love of music, the charm of his guitar playing, his generosity and caring spirit and his comedic streak endeared him to many.

May his soul rest in peace.

V. Studley Joins Caricom

January 24, 2015


After Studley left the Guyana Bauxite Company, he stayed in Guyana moving to the capital city, Georgetown to join the staff of CARICOM as Industrial Engineer.

In this capacity he was responsible for providing technical and logistical support for CARICOM’s programs for the promotion of science and technology, and the promotion of standards and quality across the region.   Indeed, he was formally commended for spearheading development and implementation of CARICOM’s industrial development program.

Studley’s colleagues respected him for his sharp and insightful mind.

Long before it became a fashionable expression, he was suggesting that CARICOM ought to be researching issues pertaining to sustainable development.     

 While at CARICOM, Studley’s love of music again shone forth and he joined CARICOM’s cultural group as the accompanying rhythm guitarist for its repertoire of folk songs.

When Studley left CARICOM he returned to St. Kitts amid some health challenges.   

IV. Studley's Contribution to the Mackenzie (Guyana) Community

January 24, 2015

Outside of the Guyana Bauxite factory, Studley bridged the social divide reaching out deep into the community, connecting with young people through his love for teaching and his passion for music, looking always for opportunities to help them achieve their dreams.  He joined the Adult Education Programme as a Mathematics instructor and helped prepare night school students for the London University General Certificate of Education examinations.

There was also a rebirth of the Cassanovas experience and he linked up with a fledgling commercial band in the town and soon became its Music Director, trainer and lead guitarist. He coached them and nurtured them and brought their performance up to a respectable standard.

Out of this mix of music, and his love for teaching and education and his Christian upbringing was distilled a certain personal quality that touched the lives of people in very positive ways.

III. Studley's Contribution to the Guyana Bauxite Company

January 24, 2015


In 1970 Studley joined the staff of the Demerara Bauxite Company at Mackenzie, a small mining town in Guyana, South America.  He adopted Guyana as his home and worked in that country for most of his professional life.

His first assignments at this company were as Process Engineer. In this capacity, his function was to assist in maintaining a proper grade of the bauxite as the raw material coming out of different mines was processed through the factory into a product of a quality that was acceptable for shipment to many places around the globe where it was used in many industries, including making aluminum.

He found that this work did not challenge him intellectually and so he undertook extensive study and research into the chemical and mineral composition of Guyana bauxite.  Armed with this information, he embarked upon innovative initiatives that made his work more interesting to him.  He revolutionized the application of the company’s main frame computing capacity by extending its use outside its traditional application to the finance and accounting function and into the process engineering aspect of the company’s operations.  

Working along with the computer programers, Studley developed a computerized method of quickly determining required blending proportions of the raw materials to produce the desired product.   This initiative significantly improved the way the company had hitherto approached grade control and proved valuable in reducing the time taken to market the product.

The information coming out of his research also proved valuable to the geologists as they made decisions about where new mines should be opened up.

At the suggestion of the Director of the Training Department, Studley shared his knowledge by delivering a series of lectures on the chemistry and processing of bauxite to plant operators and other technical personnel.

In time, the Government of Guyana nationalized the Demerara Bauxite Company, renaming it the Guyana Bauxite Company, and a policy of moving Guyanese nationals into middle and upper management positions began. These were heady days at thecompany and, even though he was not a national of Guyana, Studley was carried along and upward by this exciting wave.

 Because of his background knowledge of the company’s operations and its products and his technical preparation, he was appointed to one planning committee after another. He was able to make his mark as he produced studies and reports to management with recommendations for improvement to production output, as well as to reliability in quality of the final product.


First Technical Sales Rep for Europe 

With this background, Studley was selected to be the company’s first technical sales representative for Europe.  He was based in London, England and was responsible for representing the Guyana Bauxite Company at all the industries in Europe, to which the company’s product was shipped.    

This work took him all over Europe, providing on-the-spot investigations of customer complaints and sending back his findings and recommendations for fixes to head office in Guyana – all aimed at maintaining the company’s international reputation at a high level.  He enjoyed these travels which covered twelve European countries and took particular pleasure in keeping the folks at home entertained with interesting details about the various cultures he was experiencing.    

The company eventually recalled Studley to Guyana to take up the position of Research and Development Engineer.   He left the company after a short stint in that position.

II. Studley's Academic Achievements

January 24, 2015


In 1965, Studley wrote the Cambridge Advanced Level Examination but passed only one of the principal subjects that he had written.  His mother was disappointed with his performance and she gave him counsel and suggested to him, among other things, that he give up the band so that he could become more focused on his academic work.  He took her advice and when he re-wrote the examinations in 1966, he returned the best results in all the Leeward Islands and was awarded the coveted Leeward Islands Scholarship.

Based on these examination results he was admitted to London University to study Chemical Engineering.

When he left school at 18, he accepted a teaching position at the former Grammar School where he taught advanced level mathematics to students in the lower sixth form.  

He enjoyed that job immensely and looked forward daily to engaging his students in the study of mathematics.

One day in 1967, while teaching one of his classes, he received a message informing him that arrangements had been completed for him to take up his Leeward Islands Scholarship. The message informed that he had two hours to pack and get to the airport.  

And so it was that at the tender age of 19 he left his friends and family at very short notice and boarded a plane headed for London, England. Needless to say, there was little time for hugs and kisses and goodbyes; suddenly, he was transported to a faraway land with an unfamiliar environment and foreign customs.   But he had a good sense of humour; the comedian in him made light of his predicament and he quickly adapted to his new home.    

When Studley returned to St. Kitts from England where he had obtained his degree in Chemical Engineering, he was absolutely delighted to be back at home among family and friends. However, he was not successful in finding a job here in St. Kitts which was, to his mind, a close enough fit to his training. He turned down offers of positions such as Chemist at the Sugar factory and Public Health Engineer for St. Kitts and Nevis, in favour of a job overseas.  

 

I. Studley's Early Years

January 24, 2015


Studley drew his first breath of air at our home in College Street, Basseterre. That was in 1948, on October 29.  His parents, Constance and Studley Elmes, Senior were devout Christians and he was exposed to a Christian upbringing, including morning devotions at home, Sunday morning worship and Sunday school.  He was received into the membership of this Methodist Church as a child and confirmed in his mid teens.

He attended the Basseterre Boys’ School and would later speak fondly of his primary school teacher, the late Inez Walters who, in the main, prepared him for the entrance examination to the former Grammar School.  He was admitted to that school on a Government Scholarship in 1959, and there he did very well academically. His major extra curricular activities were the Cadet Corps and the Cassanovas Band; but it was the band to which he devoted most of his time and energy.


Studley's Music 

Studley’s interest in music started at an early age.  His mother arranged for him to attend formal music lessons after school.  He studied music theory and practiced his assignments on a piano which she had acquired and placed in the living room.  Over a period of several years he sat and passed the examinations of the Royal Schools of Music up to and including the grade five level.

To his mother’s horror, he stopped going to music lessons at that level, divorced the piano and started a love affair with the guitar.  He taught himself to play that instrument and practiced incessantly, honing his skills as a guitarist.  Joey Lewis, Clarence Curvan, Dutchy Brothers, Ancell Wyatt were regional musicians who influenced him; and on the local scene at the time,  he admired the work of Will Richards and his Silver Rhythm Combo and what he perceived to be the saxophonic splendor of Dwyer Astaphan and Poesy Southwell.

His love of music grew and while still in his teenage years he pondered the effect of music on mood and inner feelings.  He called that music therapy and, in later years, would seek to understand the mechanism by which it worked.

In the  early 60’s he became a founding member of the Cassanovas Band, formed from a group of his schoolmates.   Their repertoire was uncommonly wide; in addition to calypso and the popular tunes of the day, it included bolero, samba, meringue, bossa-nova, and a little touch of jazz.   In that last group, their rendition of Dave Brubeck’s “Take Five” was well received.

With his acquired knowledge of music theory, Studley found creative and innovative ways of coordinating the group, harmonizing and arranging most of the band’s selections to create a unique Cassanovas sound.  In addition to being the lead guitarist, he actually functioned as the music director and was a major driving force behind the band’s success.  

When the history of music in St. Kitts is written, he will be remembered for his contribution.