Dale (Jimmy) P H Scobie Jr.

Ryan Kelly, friend of Dale Jr. interrupted  an emotional tribute to praise “a real grafter… the six foot eight tall muscle of the team.” Peals of laughter broke the solemn mood as he remembered being with Dale Jr. at work on a construction project. Ryan was on the scaffolding and Dale Jr. on the ground:

"Heights was not his strongpoint… One day, I asked him to bring something up to the roof… He got halfway up the ladder. Looked down... Then looked up at me... And said...

'Fam! I think I’m going to find something to do on the ground.'"

-------

Yesterday marked a milestone for the Scobie family.

Family members gathered at a memorial service in which history blended the present we see with a past usually kept out of sight. Something of the mystery of family life clarified as more, merely than family members, three generations that carry the Scobie name came together. 

The service at Luton, Bedfordshire stirred memory of times when ambitious Londoners coined the phrase, “as rich as a Tobago planter.” More, even, than they had already been doing in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, ambitious migrants left Britain, hoping to make a fortune in the West Indies.

https://www.natt.gov.tt/sites/default/files/pdfs/The-Rise-and-Fall-of-King-Sugar.pdf 

One day, details of the migrant who planted the name Scobie in Tobago, and of whatever family relations existed in the eighteenth century may be told. Until research reveals those circumstances, however, the beginnings of the name Scobie in Tobago remain a mystery, much like one inscribed on the tombstone of Betty Stiven at Plymouth, Tobago.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/mystery-tomb  

With the passing of time, a family of Scobies formed. Second, third and fourth generation bearers of that name in Trinidad and Tobago made it possible for another migrant to return the family name to its British homeland. Circumstances had changed, to put it mildly. And yesterday fifth, sixth and seventh generation family members recognised good fortune in family relations expressing wealth different from the type their British ancestor looked for in Tobago.

Pictures tell the story of a sixth generation Scobie, beloved by his companion and a local community gathered to celebrate a life that was all-too-brief. Notably, in a context his British companion outlined, Dale Jr. had made special efforts to develop a father-son relationship. In doing that, Dale Jr. made himself invaluable. He became “the star” to the seventh iteration of the Tobago Scobie name. As Dale Sr. put it:

“Dale Jr was the consummate father. He… ensured… a strong bond of father-son connection existed between himself and his son… He was his son’s number one hero… The best rapport and relationship we had was after he had his own son.”

What an example for us all!Long live strong father-son relationships!

-------

The background photo to the profile of Dale Jr. holding his son's hand is of the entrance to Santa Rosa Heights, a neighbourhood at the base of the Northern Range in Trinidad and Tobago, where Dale Jr. spent his teenage years.