Professor Rex Nettleford passes hours before birthday

Renowned university professor Rex Nettleford is dead.

The Jamaican icon who hailed from Trelawney passed away on Tuesday night just hours before celebrating his 77th birthday.{{more}}

Professor Nettleford was vice-chancellor emeritus of the University of the West Indies (UWI) and founder of the National Dance Theatre Company (NDTC).

On January 27, 2010, Nettleford was admitted to a hospital in Washington, DC, United States of America, in an unconscious state after suffering a cardiac arrest. Doctors said he never regained consciousness.

The former Rhodes scholar had gone to Washington to attend a fund-raising gala for the UWI.

Over the years he had developed a reputation as an expressive dancer and as a historian.

Prime Minister Dr.Ralph Gonsalves in a tribute to Nettleford from Ethiopia on Wednesday said he was revered in the field of education, for his contribution to nationhood, and to the arts.

“He was a man who kept close to the folk and always wanted us to see the development of our region through the prism of our own culture,” said Gonsalves.

“A titan has passed, an icon,” said Gonsalves.

The prime minister said he would express formally to the UWI the regret of his passing.