By Aubrey Armstrong
The late Paterson “Pat” Thompson’s life (1931 – 2020) spanned three (3) eras of the life of the Caribbean, so I have titled this tribute a “Life in three Acts”. Pat’s formative years were Act One: He was born in then British Guiana in the early 1930s and came of age in the 50s and 60s as the colonial period was winding down. In Act Two, a period spanning from the mid-60s to the early 90s, Pat was able to transition from a manager in the private sector to a leader in the public sector, serving in key nationalised Guyanese industries – bauxite, rum, shipping – and representing a newly independent Guyana with distinction as a head of Diplomatic Mission. In Act Three of his career and public life, the late 90s and early 21st century, Pat became a leader in the regional private sector as the head of a revitalized Apex private sector organization called the Caribbean Association of Industry and Commerce (CAIC). Pat moved to Barbados to lead CAIC and lived there for over 30 years, into retirement and his passing.