Sports administrator dies

....GFF mourn council member’s death By Michael DaSilva
Stabroek News
June 27, 2002

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The local sporting fraternity plunged into deep shock yesterday with news of the death of sports administrator and Guyana Teachers Union (GTU) president, Bertram Hamilton, who died yesterday.

Hamilton, the first vice-president of the Upper Demerara Football Sub-Association (UDFSA) and member of the Guyana Football Federation’s (GFF) general council, died yesterday morning in hospital. He was also a vice-president of the Amateur Athletic Association of Guyana (AAA).

The former school teacher started his athletic career in Linden and was a teacher officer of the now defunct Guyana National Service.

Hamilton managed several of Linden’s athletic teams and was a major force behind Linden’s success at the GTU’s Track and Field, Cycling and Swimming championships.

Hamilton played hockey for GNS Ajax and Mac’s Ace and was recently appointed manager of the Guyana team to the Junior CAC Games slated for Barbados next week.

Hamilton was also appointed manager of the AAA’s gold squad which was set up by the AAA with the aim of winning gold medals at every junior track and field meet they participate in.

Co-director of the Kashif and Shanghai organisation and UDFSA president Kashif Mohamed, in an invited comment told Stabroek Sport in his view Hamilton was a great teacher, football and athletic administrator.

"The sudden death caught us by surprise. We knew he was sick but we did not think he would have succumbed" Mohamed lamented, adding "Everything happened so fast. God knows what’s best and if God say’s its time, what can man do, it’s time".

Mohamed would like to extend his and his organisation’s condolences to Hamilton’s family and friends.

GFF’s general secretary, George Rutherford, in a prepared statement said "it is with a sense of sadness and heartfelt grief that we at the GFF mourn the loss of a stalwart in the football fraternity.

Brother Bertram Hamilton was an active and very action oriented person whether he was serving at the general council which is the highest decision making forum for football in Guyana, at the sub-association level where he served as vice-president of the UDFSA, or as president of the GTA, through which office and through his hands-on approach, he almost singlehandedly, with the assistance of the GFF, arranged for annually, the training of teachers throughout the country, to become football coaches and referees.

His insight into difficult issues, his analytical thought, his thorough presentation and his visionary prowess, were always brought to the fore in the decision making process.

His hallmark was that he not only identified the problem, but always proffered recommendations and action oriented solutions. Football administration and from my knowledge, because of his multi-faceted capabilities, several other organisations and disciplines will be the poorer for his untimely departure.

We are however comforted in the fact that he has led from the front by precept and by example and therefore he has left his footprint on the sands of time.

It will be very difficult to emulate him but we must, if we are to succeed.

(GFF) president Klass, on learning of his death, called this morning from Japan and asked the GFF to extend his (Klass) personal condolences and those of the executive and members of the GFF’s general council to the sorrowing relatives, colleagues and associates.

He was a true son of the soil, a Guyanese whose distinguished service is worthy of emulation.