Dear Editor,
It is with great sadness I write of the passing in New York, USA, on November 9, 2023 of my dear friend, Dr. Morris O. Paul, a member of the first batch of students admitted to the University of Guyana (UG) in 1963. Morris and I were among the approximately twenty students admitted to the Biology Department that year. Of that number, only five of us survived the rigours of work and study to graduate and we became close friends. Morris is the first Biology graduate of the UG and the only one in our group to graduate in four years. After a stint as an instructor in the Biology Department and Research Assistant to Professor Harold Drayton, Head of the Biology Department, who was conducting research into equine encephalitis with facilities offered at the Central Medical Laboratory of the Georgetown Public Hospital, in 1969 Morris was admitted to the University of the West Indies in Jamaica to pursue a MSc in Medical Microbiology. Upon completion in 1971 he proceeded to the University of Manchester, UK, where he completed a PhD, majoring in virology.
Dr. Paul is one of the most outstanding graduates of the UG’s Biology Department. Over the years he pursued a career in medical research and teaching which took him to Canada, the United Kingdom, Nigeria, the West Indies, and the United States of America. From 1977 to 1985 he was Senior Lecturer in Medical Micro-biology and Parasitology at the University of Ife, Nigeria, and from 1980 to 1985 he served also as Consulting Microbiologist at the Ife University Hospitals Complex. Subsequently, he held teaching and research positions at a number of US institutions, including Research Associate at the Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York; Director of the Retro-virology Laboratory, North Shore University Hospital, New York; and Assistant Professor of Microbiology at Cornell University Medical College, New York. Also, from 1992 to 1999 he was visiting Scholar, Regional Virus Laboratory, East Birming-ham, England. Prior to retiring, he was a Microbiologist with the US Food and Drug Administration and Adjunct Professor, Department of Biological Sciences, Long Island University, New York.
Dr. Paul published extensively in scientific journals on AIDS, Immunology, and Microbiology, and made presentations at various international conferences. In 2002, he was the keynote speaker at the dinner and dance of the Ontario Chapter of the UG Guild of Graduates where he reconnected in person with many friends of his UG years. He leaves to mourn his caring and loving wife Doreen in whose arms he passed away, son Stephen, three grandchildren, and many relatives and friends. On behalf of myself and my family who he met for the first time in 2002 but who remembers him fondly, I extend our deepest sympathy to Doreen, Stephen, and the grandchildren. To Morris, I say good-bye dear friend, may your soul rest in eternal peace.
Sincerely,
Harry Hergash
