Trib­utes con­tin­ued to pour in yes­ter­day for well-known en­vi­ron­men­tal­ist Pro­fes­sor Ju­lian Stan­ley "Jake" Ken­ny who died on Tues­day af­ter a short ill­ness. He was 81. Ken­ny died at his home at Pineap­ple Place, Hale­land Park, Mar­aval, around noon. Among those who paid trib­ute yes­ter­day was Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar.

PM: He was fore­most in pro­tec­tion of wildlife

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar has de­scribed Pro­fes­sor Ju­lian Ken­ny as one T&T's fore­most re­sources in the doc­u­men­ta­tion and pro­tec­tion of the coun­try's wildlife. She said so in a state­ment is­sued on Tues­day, hours af­ter Ken­ny's pass­ing at his Mar­aval home. Ken­ny pre­vi­ous­ly served as chair­man of the En­vi­ron­men­tal Man­age­ment Au­thor­i­ty. He al­so was a for­mer In­de­pen­dent sen­a­tor. Per­sad-Bisses­sar said Ken­ny served as an ad­vis­er to the In­ter-Min­is­te­r­i­al Com­mit­tee on the Law of the Sea Con­ven­tion and chair­man of the In­sti­tute of Ma­rine Af­fairs.

COP's Toney: A friend, fa­ther and son of the soil

Chair­man of the Con­gress of the Peo­ple (COP) Joseph Toney yes­ter­day called on the Gov­ern­ment and na­tion of make a fit­ting trib­ute to Ken­ny. In ex­press­ing con­do­lences on the death of the re­tired UWI pro­fes­sor, Toney de­scribed him as "one of the pi­o­neers of the lo­cal con­ser­va­tion­ist move­ment." "His pas­sion for en­vi­ron­men­tal sus­tain­abil­i­ty and his in­sight on in­ter­na­tion­al af­fairs have laid the foun­da­tion for the emer­gence of an eco-friend­ly cul­ture in Trinidad and To­ba­go," Toney said. "His 40-plus years of re­search on zo­ol­o­gy, botany and ma­rine bi­ol­o­gy have craft­ed the way in which we as a young na­tion iden­ti­fy our­selves with our en­vi­ron­ment.

"As a colum­nist, his in­tel­lec­tu­al depth, bril­liant­ly dis­played through his week­ly columns, pro­voked pub­lic opin­ion on many mat­ters crit­i­cal to our na­tion­al de­vel­op­ment. "His watch­man­ship over na­tion­al af­fairs have kept many a gov­ern­ment, par­lia­men­tar­i­an and cor­po­rate cit­i­zen in check and bal­ance." He not­ed that as an In­de­pen­dent sen­a­tor, Ken­ny's in­put on many gov­ern­ment bills great­ly in­flu­enced the Par­lia­ment. "The Con­gress of the Peo­ple wish­es to ex­tend its sin­cer­est con­do­lences to the fam­i­ly of the late Prof Ju­lian Ken­ny and to our na­tion on the loss of a friend, fa­ther, fore­run­ner and a son of the soil," Toney said.

Anil: A true pa­tri­ot and man of prin­ci­ples

Sport Min­is­ter Anil Roberts has ex­tend­ed sin­cere con­do­lences to the fam­i­ly, col­leagues and friends on the sud­den pass­ing of Prof Ken­ny. Roberts de­scribed Ken­ny as a pa­tri­ot and said the lega­cy of his schol­ar­ship, re­search, books and ac­tivism would en­dure for gen­er­a­tions. He al­so praised Ken­ny's in­tegri­ty and ad­her­ence to prin­ci­ples in the pro­tec­tion of the en­vi­ron­ment and nat­ur­al re­sources of T&T.

A tremen­dous loss says EMA chair­man

"A tremen­dous loss." This was the sen­ti­ment ex­pressed by chair­man of the EMA Board of Di­rec­tors Kelvin Ram­nath. "Pro­fes­sor (Ju­lian Ken­ny) was a long-stand­ing icon in the en­vi­ron­men­tal move­ment, not on­ly in Trinidad and To­ba­go, but through­out the Caribbean," Ram­nath said. "He will be deeply missed and we are very sad­dened by his pass­ing."