MATT sourced two tributes to the work of the late Express editor Jerome Tang Lee. Krishna Maharaj worked with him after he returned to the media at the San Fernando office of the Trinidad Express in 1996.

Former Guardian photographer Elmo Griffith, who joined Trinidad Tesoro in 1979 met Mr Tang Lee when he joined Tesoro in 1980 and worked with him as the editor of the Tesoro news publication until 1995.

Krishna Maharaj: I worked with Mr Tang Lee for 15 years I must say it was some of my best times in the media. I leanred a lot from him about writing a story.

Mr Tang Lee was the best editor to work at the Express. He was a very approachable who knew what real journalism is about. My condolences to Mrs Tang Lee and his family.

Elmo Griffith: Jerome Tang Lee was a gentleman, a man of integrity. A man with whom one could have sat and have a discussion or conversation, be it personnal or work related and be confident that not a word would leave the four walls.

I met Jerome, sometime in the mid 80’s, I think it was, when he became a member of the Public Relations Department at what was TRINTOPEC in Santa Flora to take charge of the company’s in-house publication, The TRINTOPEC News.

The oilfield environment was a new and different place for Jerome. It was a place where the news took a distant second place, sometimes even third.

The Publication Relations Department and its functions, including the newspaper was a support unit for the main function of the company, the production of petroleum.

With all the competing interest within the company and everyone wanting their story told, sometimes using a lot of influence peddling Jerome had to bring a sense of balance to the newspaper, which he achieved in his own quiet way.

For me it was a pleasure working with Jerome, I learnt a lot about work ethics, commitment, passion for what one does. We worked as a team my role being that of photographer ensuring that photos got to him on time properly captioned.

Jerome Tang Lee on the job.

Every piece of writing for the newspaper, including captions were either re-written or heavily edited. Once I played farce and wrote something from an assignment.

I took my time and felt proud of my writing. I got feed back from some of my colleagues who told me, yea it good. I presented it to Jerome, He read it and said nothing.

So I asked him if was okay. He simply responded,”Well it’s information.” On another occasion, the head of the department wrote a piece for the paper and it got the same trearment. The boss was later heard saying in conversation, “Boy, the man edited my story!”

The newspaper was Jerome’s pride and joy and everything had to be just right. I spent many afternoons into evenings with him at the printer as he put the paper to bed.

For the printing technicians it was not easy; they had to redo, sometimes, a whole page to get it right.

Jerome enjoyed horse racing. On some days, about two or three times a month Jerome would disappear from the office for awhile.

He would take up his note pad and announce that he was going to the admin building, which was about a minute’s drive from where the department was situated.

It was some time before we learned the real reason for his disappearance – to San Fernando to check the horses. Following that revelation, whenever Jerome announced his admin trip there were smiles all around.

It was a pleasure working with Jerome Tang Lee.

Rest In Peace, sir, you were truly one in a million.