Dr Wordsworth Price

When Wordsworth Price left Trinidad & Tobago in 1950, on a scholarship from the then University College of the West Indies to Mona Campus, Jamaica, it was never his intention to have lived away from the place of his birth for more than a half century. Wordy, as he is known, the eldest of the late Victor and Albertina Price's five sons, is currently on a visit to Trinidad from England where he has lectured in physics for the past 44 years.

Born at No 21 Dundonald Street, Port of Spain, 72 years ago. Wordy, won a College Exhibition from Tranquillity Boys Intermediate School to Queen's Royal College, sat and passed the Higher School Certificate three times in different mixes of the science subjects. First in Physics, Chemistry, Botany and Zoology, followed the next two years by Biology, Advanced Physics, Applied Mathematics and Chemistry. In his final year, Wordy won two prizes which in spite of all that he has since achieved, remain the ultimate - the Barrow Prize for Physics and the Gerald Doorly prize for good citizenship, voted for by the whole school.

Says Wordy "As a little boy I had the idea I would study medicine and come back home to Trinidad, open a little office on Frederick Street and make a contribution to the community." But an "unpleasant surprise" awaited him in Jamaica when he was told "no you have to do the same subjects used to win the UCIW schol - physics, chemistry and applied math. I had no idea what I was going to do at the end of the Bachelor of Science degree."

On graduation day, the Head of the Department invited Wordy and five others to go on to do the Master of Science degree. I said to myself "whatever you are doing, better to do it to a higher level than stay at the lower level."

Wordy started to work towards a Master's in Spectroscopy, changed to Di-electrics (the study of materials which do not conduct electricity such as, rubber, plastics and glass), taught mathematics at the Jamaica College, and represented the Jamaican National Rifle Team. But found he was getting nowhere with the completion of his Master's because of a problem encountered with the measurement on a crystal of sapphire when luck which has always played a big part in his life, stepped in, and he was invited to England to finish the degree in that country.

Arriving in London with fifty pounds in his pocket, no longer affiliated to the Master's programme at UCIW in Jamaica, "I tried to find a job where whatever I was doing might be applicable to Trinidad and Tobago when I came back home." A thought that was never far from Wordy's mind. But there was no such job and so he became a Scientific Officer for one year with the British Electrical Research Association.

Studying for the Master of Science Degree in the "Measurement Of The Principal Components of the Di-electric Tension in a Single Crystal of Sapphire" at Birbeck College in London and working in Surrey proved difficult so Wordy joined the British Di-electric Research Limited in London, where he worked on a research project for the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment. Then moved to the Royal Radar Establishment and worked on microminiature capacitors.

Everything was conspiring to take Wordy further and further away from coming home, and says the very affable professor "I came to the conclusion I was learning more and more about less and less as di- electrics was a highly specialised field and I knew nothing much more than di-electrics." Wanting to expand his academic horizons he joined the staff of Norwood Technical College as Assistant Lecturer in Physics, then moved to what is now Southbank University as a Lecturer in Physics, and there he remained until his retirement in 1995.

In 1971, Wordy obtained a doctorate from the University of London in "Electric Potential Theory with specific relation to calculate electric potential distribution in anisothropic disc of arbitrary shape."

But thoughts of coming home were still uppermost in his mind and he applied for, and was offered, a job at the St Augustine Campus of the University of the West Indies. Dr Price did not accept for two reasons: " My conscience bothered me because I felt that my experience in di-electric research would be irrelevant to the Trinidad environment. And I would be one of the academics who just wanted a lot of money for doing nothing much; and secondly when I applied for the job, they offered me a position which was not equivalent to the one I had in England and I made it clear that if I came to Trinidad I was happy to accept less money but I was not prepared to accept a drop in status."

Today, Professor Price lectures in his retirement at Schiller International University in London where he plans to remain as long as he is competent and the students are happy with him. He is also a concert violinist in the Kensington Philharmonic Orchestra, having learned piano at Miss Roberts' Rockley School of Music in Woodbrook. And has represented Trinidad & Tobago at international level in rifle shooting at Bisley, many times.

A bachelor for most of his life, he married English-born, Sheila, at All Saints Anglican Church in October 1995.

Wordy's received The Scarlet Ibis Award from former High Commissioner to London, retired Justice Ulric Cross, for distinguished service in the field of Science. "I am very proud of it, especially from a retired Royal Air Force bomber pilot. This is a particular honour authorised by this country for Trinidadians in London who have distinguished themselves."

by Angela Pidduck