Richard Lord

For­mer Gov­ern­ment Min­is­ter Dr Cuth­bert Joseph was pre­pared for death, ac­cord­ing to his wife Joyce Joseph.Joseph, 84, died peace­ful­ly at his Cas­cade home on Tues­day morn­ing. He had been ail­ing since June. Joseph, who held sev­er­al min­is­te­r­i­al port­fo­lios un­der for­mer Peo­ple's Na­tion­al Move­ment Gov­ern­ments, leaves to mourn his wife and six chil­dren.

He will be buried fol­low­ing a ser­vice at the Church of the As­sump­tion, Long Cir­cu­lar Road at 1.30 pm next Tues­day. Mrs Joseph said the body will, be laid out for pub­lic view­ing at the church from noon.For­mer prime min­is­ter Patrick Man­ning in ex­tend­ing con­do­lences to the Joseph fam­i­ly said the for­mer ed­u­ca­tion min­is­ter was "a Caribbean ser­vant."

Joseph was one of the peo­ple who had pre­sent­ed a re­port to Man­ning in 2009 on the pro­posed in­te­gra­tion of Trinidad and To­ba­go and oth­er East Caribbean states.Man­ning said Joseph's "lega­cy of ser­vice lives on and will bear fruit in the fu­ture." Mean­while PNM Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary Ash­ton Ford said Joseph was "a hard work­er who nev­er re­fused to lend his as­sis­tance to the PNM and the coun­try when re­quest­ed."

Ford said Joseph played a key role in his ear­ly life as a bud­ding politi­cian. He said Joseph, a for­mer MP for Port-of-Spain East, will be missed and was a faith­ful ser­vant of Trinidad and To­ba­go for more than 30 years.

Joseph has be­come the lat­est in a num­ber of PNM mem­bers and sup­port­ers who have passed away in re­cent months. Among those who died in re­cent months were for­mer Trade and In­dus­try Min­is­ter Ken­neth Val­ley, for­mer Min­is­ter in the Min­istry of Com­mu­ni­ty De­vel­op­ment Eu­lalie James, for­mer Port of Spain may­or Steven­son Sargeant, for­mer Ari­ma May­ors Rose Jan­neire and Per­cy Cezair, for­mer care­tak­er at par­ty head­quar­ters Bal­isi­er House Ken­rick Munroe and PNM Main­te­nance and Couri­er Col­in Stew­art.

Ford said Joseph was "the ul­ti­mate ed­u­ca­tor and he will al­ways be re­mem­bered by all in the PNM." (RL)