Hundreds turned out yesterday to bid farewell to the late deputy mayor Robert Williams, who was laid to rest in his hometown of Corentyne at the St Francis Xavier Roman Catholic Church.
Williams, 62, died on January 30, at the Caribbean Heart Institute where he had been a patient for several weeks. He had been suffering from a heart condition for some time but his health took a drastic turn for the worse late last year and he had to be rushed to the public institution. There, relatives said, Williams’s health deteriorated and he looked “lower and lower” over time.
Relatives, friends and members of the public flocked City Hall and the Brickdam Cathedral to pay respects before the body was taken to Berbice, the county Williams hailed from, for burial.
At the funeral service, attended by several government officials, Williams was described as a very humane person, a man of integrity and a son of the soil who dedicated his life to serving the people of Guyana.
Guyana Elections Com-mission (GECOM) Chairman, Dr Steve Surujbally, in paying tribute, said Williams will be remembered and missed for his open-minded contributions and dedication to his work while he served as commissioner.
Among others paying tribute were Prime Minister Samuel Hinds, Mayor Hamilton Green, PNCR Leader Robert Corbin, Minister in the Ministry of Finance Juan Edghill, Minis-terial Adviser on Empower-ment Odinga Lumumba and Vincent Alexander.
Earlier, at City Hall, President Donald Ramotar extended condolences to the family and he too shared a few words.
“He was a policeman, a man who was interested in the security of the people of the country, and he moved up in political life. He was a minister of government. He also served this city and he worked very hard trying to enhance our city,” he said.
As GECOM commissioner, Ramotar said, Williams served with distinction.
“He was fair, even handed and worked in the interest of all in every sense of the word.
“I think also that we have every right to say that we will celebrate his life, all of us who loved him can be comforted by the fact that he lived a full and useful life that his life was lived in the service of humanity… Even though we were on different political divides I am proud to stand here to say that Robert Williams lived his life in that way in the service of the people of the country,” Ramotar noted.
Williams served as Minis-ter of Fisheries under the Forbes Burnham administration and later held the position of Mayor of Georgetown from 1987-1989 then that of deputy mayor from 1998 up to the time of his death. Williams functioned as Chair-man of City Hall’s Finance Committee, Public Health and Market Committees and the Guyana Association for Municipalities.
He also served as President of the Guyana Dominoes Association (GDA).
