DIX­IE-ANN DICK­SON

Briton Ian Par­ry touched many lives dur­ing his 47 years. He was re­mem­bered dur­ing his fu­ner­al ser­vice at the Holy Trin­i­ty Cathe­dral in Port-of-Spain, yes­ter­day. Par­ry died on the East-bound lane of the Churchill Roo­sevelt High­way, El So­cor­ro, when his Nis­san Almera mo­tor­car slammed in­to the El So­cor­ro traf­fic lights ear­ly on Sun­day. The mood in the al­most packed cathe­dral was very som­bre as friends and fam­i­ly qui­et­ly mourned his pass­ing. Close friend and for­mer col­league Kevin Cap­stick re­mem­bered Par­ry, who was a train­er with the Spe­cial An­ti-Crime Unit of Trinidad and To­ba­go (Sautt), as a man who loved life and made every event a mem­o­rable oc­ca­sion for those around him. Cap­stick said Par­ry had a very in­fec­tious and bub­bly spir­it that drew peo­ple to­wards him.

RIGHT: ?Ian Par­ry was killed ear­ly Sun­day morn­ing when the car he was dri­ving crashed on the Churchill-Roo­sevelt High­way.

He said Par­ry placed a lot of val­ue on friend­ship and be­lieved that the in­tan­gi­ble things in life were more im­por­tant. "He was a great be­liev­er in help­ing oth­ers as he ded­i­cat­ed some of his time to work­ing with the Unit­ed Na­tions," Cap­stick added. How­ev­er, Rev Col­in Samp­son who of­fi­ci­at­ed at the fu­ner­al called on fam­i­ly and friends to car­ry on his in­flu­ence and lega­cy. Samp­son said, "Par­ry was the bear­er of the love that Je­sus spoke of and he helped us con­nect with that love. "You have not lost the deep­est el­e­ment of Par­ry, so em­brace that love and let it be a re­flec­tion in each of your lives. "Do not let his life, love, laugh and great per­son­al­i­ty dis­ap­pear in the box with him but cher­ish it in your hearts," he said.

In­ter­viewed af­ter the ser­vice, di­rec­tor of Sautt Pe­ter Joseph said he had lost a very valu­able and ded­i­cat­ed em­ploy­ee. "Since he joined Sautt in 2006, he gave his heart and soul to the or­gan­i­sa­tion. He brought a lot of ideas to the ta­ble," Joseph said. "Par­ry had a great love for his job and loved work­ing in T&T," he added. Even though he came from a dif­fer­ent cul­ture, Joseph said "Par­ry blend­ed in very well. He loved our way of life." Par­ry who served more than 20 years as a po­lice of­fi­cer with the Wilt­shire Po­lice in Eng­land, left the ser­vice in Eng­land and ded­i­cat­ed his life to mak­ing T&T a bet­ter place.

"He was an ex­cel­lent, ded­i­cat­ed and com­mit­ted work­er. He un­der­stood our prob­lems and con­tributed mean­ing­ful­ly and sig­nif­i­cant­ly to mak­ing a dif­fer­ence," Joseph said. Joseph said Par­ry was one of the key train­ers in Sautt and trained the first batch of civil­ians that came in­to the ser­vice. Among those who came to bid farewell to Par­ry was Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty min­is­ter Mar­tin Joseph, Act­ing Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er, James Philbert, Act­ing Deputy Po­lice Com­mis­sion­ers Ray­mond Craig and Mau­rice Pig­gott and Di­rec­tor of Sautt Brigadier Pe­ter Joseph.