‘Compre’ reflects and rebuilds as it marks golden jubilee

MONTEGO BAY, St James — Herbert Morrison Technical High rolled out a few of its well known alumni to join students for morning devotion on Monday and laud the school, affectionately called Compre, for the role it has played in shaping their lives. Even more of them had gathered the day before for the church service that launched celebrations to mark the school’s 50th anniversary. Vice-president of business process outsourcing (bpo) and logistics at the Port Authority of Jamaica (PAJ) Gloria Henry was among those present on Monday morning.

“I think the institution has done very well, it has created a very strong foundation for technical education in Montego Bay at a time when technical education was not looked upon favourably in Montego Bay,” she said from the school in which she enrolled in 1983. Today Henry is a major player in Jamaica’s logistics and business process outsourcing industries. Past student Neville Campbell, one of the first students to enrol when the school opened on September 13, 1976, addressing the morning devotion at Herbert Morrison Technical High School on Monday.

“Compre entered the space and has differentiated itself in engineering, in science, in mathematics. The students have done well in music and in sports, everyone knows how well we have done in track and field, DaCosta Cup, and I think the school is on a great journey,” she told the Jamaica Observer. Councillor for the Falmouth Division and former mayor of Falmouth Garth Wilkinson also attended the institution and said it has left a lasting mark on him and his family.

“I am one of them who believes in this institution, believed in what Lloyd Whinstanley and Herbert Morrison, the founding fathers of this institution, gave to us,” Wilkinson declared. Former student of Herbert Morrison Technical High School Councillor Garth Wilkinson greets students on Monday. “I am proud because I am of them that produced three generations.

My daughter came here and my grandson is here,” he added. Originally a secondary school named Catherine Hall High, it was later renamed Herbert Morrison Comprehensive High School — from which it acquired the moniker ‘Compre’ — before becoming Herbert Morrison Technical High School, named in honour of a former mayor of Montego Bay. Neville Campbell was among the first students when Compre’s doors opened on September 13, 1976.

“It’s really humbling because of wh…