Through­out his many years of ser­vice in the San­gre Grande Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion (SGRC), Mar­tin Ter­ry Ron­don nev­er showed po­lit­i­cal bias.

So said the man who suc­ceed­ed him as SGRC chair­man Anil Juter­am, as he paid trib­ute to the for­mer lo­cal gov­ern­ment vet­er­an at his fu­ner­al ser­vice at the St Charles RC Church in Tu­na­puna yes­ter­day.

Juter­am was among the scores of mourn­ers, in­clud­ing mem­bers of the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment, par­lia­men­tar­i­ans and rep­re­sen­ta­tives from var­i­ous re­gion­al cor­po­ra­tions, who turned out to pay their fi­nal re­spects to the coun­try’s longest-serv­ing coun­cil­lor.

“Mr Ron­don was the type of man who nev­er looked at me as the per­son who re­placed him. In­stead, he would call me in the morn­ing be­fore cer­tain meet­ings. We had tur­bu­lent meet­ings in that cor­po­ra­tion, and Mr Ron­don would call me and say a word of prayer for me,” Juter­am said.

“To­day, I urge all politi­cians, from both sides of the fence, to make our beloved coun­try a bet­ter place. Please take a page out of Mr Mar­tin Ter­ry Ron­don’s book.

“I want to sug­gest some­thing to the Ho­n­ourable Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley, and to mem­bers of his Cab­i­net. As a fit­ting trib­ute to this ho­n­ourable man—I see the Min­is­ter of Ed­u­ca­tion here—there is a school in Matelot over the bridge by the riv­er. That is what I want to sug­gest in re­mem­brance of him and you as the Cab­i­net can make that de­ci­sion and re­name that school the Mar­tin Ter­ry Ron­don school, so the chil­dren in Matelot and North Coast will for­ev­er know the ster­ling con­tri­bu­tion Mar­tin Ter­ry Ron­don made.”

Juter­am al­so called on the Gov­ern­ment to re­name the To­co to Va­len­cia High­way and the To­co Recre­ation Ground in Ron­don’s mem­o­ry to huge ap­plause from the con­gre­ga­tion.

For­mer Peo­ple’s Part­ner­ship gov­ern­ment min­is­ter Jack Warn­er, who was a close friend and at­tend­ed the same church with Ron­don, said, “At the end of the day, the best lega­cy we can leave for Ter­ry, es­pe­cial­ly our lo­cal politi­cians, is to live a life like Ter­ry and be a Ter­ry of your own self be­cause where Ter­ry is to­day, we would all be there to­mor­row.”

Al­so pay­ing trib­ute were PNM gen­er­al sec­re­tary Fos­ter Cum­mings, To­co San­gre Grande MP Roger Munroe and act­ing Prime Min­is­ter Colm Im­bert.

Im­bert said Ron­don lived and breathed lo­cal gov­ern­ment and was Mr San­gre Grande.

In the eu­lo­gy, Ron­don’s son, Vaughn, re­called how his fa­ther served the down­trod­den.

“My fa­ther was king­dom-build­ing, and when you build the king­dom, it is a 24 hours a day, sev­en days a week, 365 days a year job,” he said.

He added, “I see the peo­ple my fa­ther’s work touched and the con­tri­bu­tions he made to Trinidad and To­ba­go. I can stand here to­day and say I am proud of what he has done.”

Fol­low­ing the ser­vice there was a view­ing at the Na­tion­al Rac­quet Cen­tre be­fore a cre­ma­tion at Bel­groves’ Fu­ner­al Home.