I accept with pleasure and some amount of humility the invitation to write a short introduction to the special issue of the Caribbean Journal of Education devoted to primary education in honour of the Reginald N. Murray’s contribution to that sector of schooling. I worked with him for more than two decades in administration, and then in academics at the university of the West Indies, Mona, and the Caribbean Education Council, and generally in the wider world of education. I recall reminding him that he represented education, ancient and modern, in Jamaica – he was the last director of education under the old school regime, and with the coming independence, the first chief education officer in the new Ministry of Education.