Dear Editor,
I was sad to learn of the death of Vibert Yong-Kong earlier this week.
He was a good friend and distinguished and valued colleague in the sugar industry when Guyana led the way in West Indies sugar production and technology. Vibert was an outstanding sugar cane scientist. I have many good memories of him. Once during a visit to Cuba he found himself in a long and intense discussion with Fidel Castro at a cocktail reception. He told me afterwards that he was impressed by how much technical sugarcane knowledge Castro possessed — and that the maximum leader had offered him a top job in the Cuban sugar industry! But he had found a polite way to decline.
My wife Mary, who worked for Vibert at the Sugar Experimental Station earlier in his career, and myself send condolences to his family. He was an outstanding Guyanese.
Yours faithfully,
Ian McDonald
