Remembering Retired UWI Professor Pedro Welch: Prime Minister Mottley Pays Tribute to Scholar's Legacy

Retired University of the West Indies (UWI) Professor Pedro Welch passed away on Friday. Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley, in paying tribute, described him as “a gentleman and scholar” with a deep passion for history, culture, and Barbados’ African heritage.

Below is the full statement:

While we can never predict for whom, or when, the hand of death will reach into our communities, there are still those occasions when we are absolutely taken aback when it does happen.

The passing of Professor Pedro Welch is one such occasion, for I never expected that just half a year after paying tribute to his mum, the late Dame Maizie Barker-Welch, I would be doing the same for him.

Professor Welch was genuinely a gentleman and scholar, a man with a passion for history, culture and ensuring that as many Barbadians as possible cultivated a healthy understanding of, and respect for, our African heritage.

And if I can judge from the words of those who had the privilege of sitting in his classes at the Cave Hill Campus of the University of the West Indies, his delivery and interaction were imbedded in an atmosphere of respect and humility that motivated his every student to excel.

What has always struck me about Professor Welch, is that while he was born to parents who were deeply engaged in the affairs of local partisan politics, and while his profession as a lecturer-historian meant that every so often his opinion would be sought on matters of public interest, his commentary was never tainted by the politics of the day.

The former Deputy Principal of the Cave Hill Campus has departed this world at 74 years of age when many of us expected that he still had so much to contribute. His passing is certainly a reminder to me, and ought to be to all of us, that we should use every moment life affords in the pursuit of endeavours that make this world a better place for all we leave behind.

Professor Welch certainly did, and the body of work he has left us, even for generations yet unborn, will cement his legacy as one to admire and emulate.

But his death has placed us at a most interesting moment in the life of our country, particularly when juxtaposed against the fact that in just over a week we have lost two eminent Barbadians who made their mark as historian-educators and whose passing has left a huge void.

Professor Welch and Trevor Marshall were two academics who emerged as part of the first generation of post-Independence Barbadians whose mission was centred on helping us to understand who we really are through careful and conscious study of our past. I sincerely hope that we will see a cadre of younger historians rising to fill the void.