2013 RADAR

Rev Devon Dick - Contribution to religion, community service

Noted member of the clergy, Reverend Devon Dick, received the Order of Distinction in the rank of Officer on Heroes Day.

Reverend Dick received the accolade for dedicated contribution to religion and community service. Originally from St Thomas, Rev Dick is pastor of the Boulevard Baptist Church in St Andrew. A lover of history, he is a former chairman of the Jamaica National Heritage Trust. While there, Rev Dick oversaw various projects, including the construction of facilities at Stony Gut in St Thomas where National Hero Paul Bogle had his chapel and the construction of the Park of World Heroes.

A Gleaner columnist, Reverend Dick is author of The Cross and the Machete, in which he argues prominent leaders of the Morant Bay Rebellion, most notably Deacon Paul Bogle and George William Gordon, were motivated to political action by their readings of 'creolised' versions of the English Baptist Bible. He also penned Rebellion to Riot.

Timar Fitz Jackson - Determination, focus pay dividends

The Rhodes Scholarship is a postgraduate award to outstanding all-round foreign students, tenable at the University of Oxford.

"I feel elated as it is a great feeling to know that all the hard work, determination and focus that I have put in over these years has finally paid off. It has materialised in a major way and other persons have realised that my passion for service has some value within this country and (they) have invested in me in such a way," Timar Fitz Jackson, last year's winner, told The Gleaner after collecting the award in November last year.

Jackson is planning to complete a doctorate in philosophy in mathematical and computational finance at Oxford, after which he intends to return home to "apply the knowledge to help and develop Jamaica's financial sector".