[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 84 (Tuesday, May 22, 2007)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1112-E1113]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  HONORING THE LIFE AND LEGACY OF VAL McCOMBIE, FORMER AMBASSADOR OF 
BARBADOS AND FORMER ASSISTANT SECRETARY GENERAL OF THE ORGANISATION OF 
                            AMERICAN STATES

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. CHARLES B. RANGEL

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, May 22, 2007

  Mr. RANGEL. Madam Speaker, I rise today to pay honor to a great man, 
Ambassador Val McCombie, of Barbados and to enter into the record an 
article from Carib News by Tony Best titled, Diplomat Who Paved The Way 
For Others. He passed away after a lengthy illness and was funeralized 
on May 9, 2007.
  Val McCombie inspired me in so many ways. He was a man who had a 
commanding presence, but was not commanding at all. He was powerful, 
but gentle. Further, he was well respected, articulate, and giving.
  Serving as a public servant was the calling on his life. Early in his 
career, he spent a great deal of his time teaching French and Spanish 
to young people. Pursuing the desire to represent the people of 
Barbados, he became the Ambassador to the United States. Serving as an 
ambassador provided him an awesome opportunity to bridge a gap between 
Caribbean nations and Latin American nations. His great ability to lead 
and serve paved the way for other public servants, some of which he 
mentored.
  I'm honored to have known him and feel blessed to have had the 
opportunity to learn from such a dignified man. I urge young people and 
my colleagues to learn more about his life and contribution to 
Barbados.

                 Diplomat Who Paved the Way for Others

                             (By Tony Best)

       Two diplomats who took turns occupying the same 
     Ambassadorial office offered different assessments of the man 
     who had set the standard they later followed. ``He built a 
     career strengthening relationships'' between CARICOM and 
     ``the rest of Latin America,'' said Michael King, Barbados' 
     current top diplomat to the U.S. and the Organization of 
     American States.
       Sir Courtney Blackman, King's immediate predecessor, 
     succinctly summed up the diplomat's career in a different 
     way. ``He was an Ambassador's Ambassador,'' said Sir 
     Courtney. Both men were reflecting on the life and career of 
     Valerie Theodore McComie, Barbados' first resident Ambassador 
     in Washington, who later became the first person from the 
     English-speaking Caribbean to be elected Assistant Secretary-
     General of the OAS, a position he held from 1980-1990. 
     McComie died in Washington on Friday after a lengthy illness.
       Called ``Val'' by his friends and colleagues, the linguist 
     and educator who once taught French and Spanish to students 
     in Barbados and St. Kitts-Nevis, English to Venezuelans and 
     French-speaking students in Martinique and France and both 
     languages to Americans and Ghanaians in high schools in the 
     U.S. and Africa used his facility with language to advance 
     the Caribbean's cause on the international stage. He did that 
     during a diplomatic career that began in 1967 and ended in 
     the early 1990s.
       Along the way, he served as Barbados' Ambassador in 
     Caracas, the first diplomat from the country to do so; its 
     non-resident envoy to Brazil; and Alternate-Governor to the 
     Inter-American Development Bank.
       Born in Trinidad and Tobago on April 1, 1920, McComie 
     received his early education in his birthplace and Barbados, 
     before he went on to London University in England which 
     awarded him a Bachelor's degree in mediaeval and modern 
     languages; and later the University of Bordeaux in France and 
     the University of California at Los Angeles. As Barbados' 
     first resident Ambassador in Washington McComie was his 
     country's eyes and ears in the U.S. capital and in Latin 
     America at a time when Caribbean nations were just beginning 
     to extend their diplomatic links to Latin America.
       Whether it was at the OAS headquarters or along 
     ambassador's row, McComie was at home, so to speak. ``He had 
     a tremendous presence and in any room he stood out, tall, 
     handsome and very comfortable with strangers,'' Sir Courtney 
     said. But even more than that, he earned the respect of the 
     Latins, who were skeptical of the interest the small English-
     speaking nations with a British orientation were showing in 
     the OAS, first with Trinidad and Tobago's membership in the 
     Western Hemisphere body. Next was Barbados. ``The respect was 
     tremendous and it came from all of the ambassadors and their 
     governments,'' added Sir Courtney who served in Washington 
     in the 1990s. ``It was that respect that enabled him to 
     become the Assistant Secretary-General of the OAS.''
       By any objective assessment, McComie performed his OAS 
     duties with aplomb, ever mindful though of the gap in 
     influence between the Secretary-General and the Assistant. 
     Still, he paved the way for Chris Thomas, the Trinidad and 
     Tobago diplomat, who succeeded him. His ability to play the 
     diplomatic game with ease and his record of getting results 
     allowed him to serve as a role model for many of the young 
     people in the Caribbean who aspired to diplomatic careers.

[[Page E1113]]

     ``He was a pioneer in our foreign service and a driving force 
     behind our membership in the OAS in 1967 and he ably 
     performed the duties of Ambassador in Venezuela when we 
     opened a mission in Caracas in 1974,'' said King. ``He was a 
     mentor to many people. He was able to use his brilliance as a 
     teacher to encourage many young diplomats to develop their 
     careers in the area of representation. ``
       Less than four years ago at a ceremony in which he was 
     being awarded the Order of Christopher Columbus by the 
     Dominican Republic, Luigi R. Einaudi, at the time the OAS 
     Assistant Secretary-General, described McComie as a 
     visionary, who like Columbus ``sailed unchartered waters, who 
     came to harbors that became the ports and bridges of the 
     future.'' But it was Barbados' Prime Minister, Owen Arthur, 
     who best summed up McComie record, when he told the OAS 
     General Assembly in Barbados in 2002 that ``his contribution 
     as an educator in Barbados and St. Kitts-Nevis helped to 
     encourage many key decision-makers in newly independent 
     states to become more aware of our Latin neighbors at a time 
     when political contact could have been said to be almost 
     nonexistent.''
       Little wonder, then, that the Barbados leader, speaking for 
     the entire Caribbean told him ``Val, we all owe you debt of 
     gratitude for having the foresight of and appreciation for 
     the value of cross-cultural contact.''

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