The University of the West Indies has learned with regret of the passing of Professor Robert LePage, Professor Emeritus and a former member of staff of the then Department of English and Mortimo Planner. Prof. LePage was a pioneer in the development of Creole Linguistics. He was co-author with Prof. Frederick Cassidy of the “Dictionary of Jamaican English” and the organizer of the first ever conference on Creole Language. He was founder and former president of the Society for Caribbean Linguistics. There is an account of his life and work at www.scl-online.net/rblepage.html
Mortimo Planno passed away on Sunday, March 5. In 1998, he was made the inaugural Folk Philosopher in the Faculty of Social Sciences. Subsequently, Planno was attached to the Institute of Caribbean Studies, which facilitated the organization and preservation of some of his archives and his accessibility as a key consultant for scholars researching on the Rastafari movement as well as his continued engagement with the wider University community. The University extends condolences to the family, friends and colleagues of Robert Le Page and Mortimo Planno.