Above: Norman Girvan

By the Caribbean Journal staff

The Caribbean is mourning the loss of one of its greatest intellectuals, Professor Norman Girvan.

The Jamaican-born Girvan, who died this week, was one of the pioneers of the regional integration movement and a major scholar in the region.

He passed away in Cuba on Wednesday.

“His ideas and ideals placed him in the upper echelons of Caribbean intellectuals,” CARICOM Secretary General Ambassador Irwin LaRocque said in a statement. “His service as main author of Towards a Single Development Vision and the Role of the Single Economy, a visionary document to guide the development of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) was a prime example of the commitment that Professor Girvan had to his Region.”

LaRocque said Girvan was a “man whose life’s work was underlined by unremitting dedication to a vision of an integrated Caribbean.”

Most recently, Girvan had served as a special United Nations envoy on the Guyana-Venezuela border dispute.

To learn a bit more about Girvan and his philosophy, see Caribbean Journal’s interview with him in 2011.