By Admin. Updated 7:00 p.m., Thursday, March 16, 2023, Atlantic Standard Time (GMT-4).
The J.P Eustace Memorial Secondary School has produced several students who later became medical doctors, and one of them visited the school today (March 16).
Dr. Cadrin Gill received a standing ovation from students and staff at the school today as he entered a ceremony held for him with a delegation of friends and supporters.
Dr. Gill graduated from the school in 1963 and is considered one of the “O Gs,” a term used to refer to some of the students who attended the school in its early years.
The school was started in April 1952 by the late Dr. John P. Eustace who was, among other things, a chemist and optometrist.
At the brief welcome ceremony held at the school, Dr. Gill publicly thanked Dr. Walford Thompson, his past teacher (who was present at the ceremony) for the foundation he received in biology while attending Emmanuel High School (renamed Dr. J.P Eustace Memorial Secondary in 2006).
He said that firm foundation propelled him into a career in medicine.
Dr. Gill said that in his days as a student at the school, there were no science laboratories, but the students still persevered and were able to do well in the pure sciences.
He said that as a boy, he would pay close attention to when animals were being slaughtered in his community of Sandy Bay and would use the opportunity to learn the anatomy of living things.
He said that he was able to strengthen his understanding of the sciences when he moved to the USA and attended college there.
Dr. Gill earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Biology from Columbia University New York City.
He earned his degree in medicine in 1976 from the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in Piscataway, New Jersey. He completed his Residency in Family Medicine from 1976-1979 at Martin Luther King, Jr. General Hospital Los Angeles, CA. He then completed a Fellowship in Family Medicine at the same hospital from 1979-1980, according to his biography.
Dr. Gill has served as Medical Director of the Vernbro Medical Group, Inc., Medical Director of Kedren Medical Staff, Medical Director of Physician Alliance Network-IPA, and Chief Resident Family Practice Center at the Martin Luther King Jr. General Hospital, among many other positions.
He is believed to the the first medical doctor to have emerged from over the Rabacca Dry River.
Apart from medicine, he has also served as this country’s Consul General to California, and he has led research into Garifuna culture and language.
After today’s ceremony, Dr. Gill visited the newly commissioned science laboratory at the school which was built by the Government of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and encouraged the students to make the best of it.
Several students at the school expressed an interest in pursuing medicine in the future.
One News St.Vincent 