EDITORIAL - Grasping Ray Chang's legacy

Ray Chang's instinct would be to complain about the fuss; to attempt to remove the spotlight from his achievements and his generosity. For that was the way he was - shy of publicity. Which, of course, was hard to be when you have accomplished so much and given even more.

Sadly, he can't any longer try. Raymond Chang died in Canada on Sunday, age 65. His preference for anonymity is the one element of his legacy that this newspaper hopes does not transcend his life. Or, put another way, Jamaica should make it its business to know and understand Raymond Chang: his hard work, his entrepreneurial spirit, his thrift and the value he placed on giving back. In other words, how we might apply his blueprint for success to Jamaica's current circumstance.

Ray Chang was a Jamaican Chinese who emigrated to Canada 47 years ago, earned a university degree, and became one of the country's corporate titans, who gave tons of his own money to art and educational institutions in the city of Toronto and in Jamaica.

Indeed, CI Financial, a firm he helped found and for a long time led, is one of Canada's largest publicly traded fund-management companies; he served as chancellor of Ryerson University, where the school of continuation education is named in his honour; a teaching chair in internal medicine at the Toronto and General and Western Hospital is named for his parents, Gladstone and Maisie Chang.

Far less well known are the donations he has made to the University of the West Indies (UWI), for which he has hosted fundraisers in Canada, and his support for Jamaican diaspora initiatives in Canada.

Such information, by themselves, do not paint a full picture - not without the character-building impact of the fact that he was one of a dozen children who, as a kid, helped out the family business, Consolidated Bakeries. Or, how his Jamaican and Hakka Chinese background helped to shape his personality and his route and approach to success.

"I'm not sure what it is," he told a Toronto Star interview in 2011. "Maybe because we had to struggle in the early years. Maybe it's part of the Jamaican and Chinese character."

WORTHY OF STUDY

Whatever that 'it' was, Ray Chang possessed it in reserve. His approach to enterprise - and life - is worthy of study in our institutions and in corporate Jamaica, and emulation, with the appreciation that while amassing wealth is good, it is not, as he indicated, the only measure of personal achievement.

Two and a half years ago, he told this newspaper: "It is not only a matter of giving assets. It's just as important to give your time." He gave both.

Ray Chang believed, too, that social welfare was not only the business of the State. "Government," he told The Gleaner, "does not make any extra money to spare, so it's the obligation of private-sector organisations to contribute as much as they can to the community."

Or, as he said in that Toronto Star interview: "... There are lots of people who can do with a hand up."

In life, Ray Chang offered us much. It should not be squandered in his death.

The opinions on this page, except for the above, do not necessarily reflect the views of The Gleaner. To respond to a Gleaner editorial, email us: editor@gleanerjm.com or fax: 922-6223. Responses should be no longer than 400 words. Not all responses will be published.