[Coral-List] Mr Peter Gayle - UWI tribute note

[PALMER,Suzanne]

Dear colleagues, 
We have lost a special person here in Jamaica. 
This is the link to the UWI tribute for Peter Gayle:

https://www.mona.uwi.edu/marcom/newsroom/entry/7794

Best, Suzanne


Suzanne E Palmer, PhD
Lecturer, Department of Life Sciences
Academic Coordinator, Port Royal Marine Laboratory
The University of the West Indies (Mona), Jamaic
https://www.caribbeanenvironments.com/New_Website/
https://www.mona.uwi.edu/lifesciences/spalmer.htm
________________________________________

Message: 1
Date: Wed, 22 Apr 2020 10:24:14 -0400
From: William Precht <william.precht at gmail.com>
To: Coral Listserver <coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov>
Subject: [Coral-List] Passing of Peter Gayle
Message-ID:
        <CAGVTjtFY=43WqANk9b7XqfigDmUvSPN8-mKOhywLWKGsKkE5zw at mail.gmail.com>
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To all.

With deep sorrow I wanted to inform the coral reef and scientific dive
community of the passing of Peter Gayle from Discovery Bay Marine
Laboratory.

Peter was a dear friend of mine. I first met Peter at Discovery Bay in the
mid-1980s and we have been friends ever since.

We took a tri-mix tech diving course together, we did a bunch of dives off
the north coast of Jamaica to depths I shouldn?t talk about - when he was
working on his graduate thesis at UWI, and he got me to play on a local
cricket team in St Anne?s Parrish when I was in town.

Over the past decade or so he got actively engaged in coral restoration and
relocation projects and would constantly pick my brain to learn all that he
could about the subject.  We stayed close via email over the last few
years. The last time I saw him was at the Coral Reef Futures meeting in Key
Largo in December 2018. Although his health was not great and he was
confined to a wheelchair at the meeting he still had a very positive
outlook towards the future.

I have enclosed below the text from a UWI press release that I received
from a friend this week.
???????????

The University of the West Indies, Mona, regrets to inform you that one of
our colleagues, Mr Peter Hope Marshal Gayle, passed away on Friday April
17, 2020.



Mr. Gayle was employed as the Principal Scientific Officer at the
UWI?s Discovery
Bay Marine Laboratory (DBML), having assumed responsibilities there in 1985.
In addition to overseeing scientific operations, Peter ran the DBML?s SCUBA
diving programme, operated and maintained the lab?s ageing ?Perry?
Recompression Chamber and oversaw the treatment of more than 380 dive
accident patients between 1985 to 2012 and led the effort to install and
commission the new HYTECH Hyperbaric Chamber which was opened in 2013.  He
was the UWI?s representative on the Board of the Association of the Marine
Laboratories of the Caribbean (AMLC) for over 15 years.



Peter served with the Jamaica Defence Force National Reserve in the Coast
Guard for 20 years where he achieved the rank of Lieutenant (senior grade).
In his spare time he sang bass with the St. Ann?s Bay Singers and as a
soloist.


????-


Respectfully


Bill Precht



--
William F. Precht

 ?You never know how strong you are until being strong is the only choice
you have?

Bob Marley


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