Senators hail Stephen Creese’s legacy of service and integrity

Gail Alexan­der

Se­nior Po­lit­i­cal Re­porter

Sen­a­tors have paid trib­ute to for­mer In­de­pen­dent Sen­a­tor Stephen Creese, de­scrib­ing him as a man whose life em­bod­ied the very essence of pub­lic ser­vice and who left an un­de­ni­able lega­cy of na­tion­al con­tri­bu­tion.

Creese died on March 27. Sen­a­tors ob­served a minute’s si­lence in his ho­n­our.

Trib­utes de­tailed his life and ca­reer, which be­gan in Fyz­abad. Creese served as an in­ves­ti­ga­tor at the Om­buds­man’s Of­fice and lat­er as deputy town clerk at the Point Fortin Bor­ough Cor­po­ra­tion. He al­so held se­nior ad­min­is­tra­tive roles as chief ex­ec­u­tive of­fi­cer at the Ma­yaro, San Juan and Siparia re­gion­al cor­po­ra­tions.

He served as act­ing deputy per­ma­nent sec­re­tary in the Min­istry of Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment and al­so act­ed as per­ma­nent sec­re­tary. In lat­er years, he worked as a lo­cal gov­ern­ment con­sul­tant.

Creese was ap­point­ed an In­de­pen­dent Sen­a­tor from 2015 to 2018 and chaired Par­lia­ment’s Joint Se­lect Com­mit­tee on Land and In­fra­struc­ture dur­ing that pe­ri­od. He al­so served as chief ex­ec­u­tive of­fi­cer of the Na­tion­al Cen­tre for Per­sons with Dis­abil­i­ties (NCPD) and was a di­rec­tor of the Trinidad and To­ba­go Cred­it Union De­posit In­sur­ance Com­pa­ny and the Pub­lic Ser­vice Cred­it Union Co-op­er­a­tive So­ci­ety Ltd.

In­de­pen­dent Sen­a­tor Dr Mar­lene Attzs said Creese’s life re­flect­ed a qui­et but stead­fast com­mit­ment to pub­lic du­ty, in­sti­tu­tion­al de­vel­op­ment and so­cial in­clu­sion.

“His life’s jour­ney em­bod­ied the very essence of pub­lic ser­vice. He dis­tin­guished him­self as a pub­lic of­fi­cer of in­tegri­ty, ad­min­is­tra­tive depth and a prac­ti­cal un­der­stand­ing of how sys­tems must work for peo­ple,” she said.

Attzs not­ed that Creese viewed gov­er­nance not as some­thing ab­stract, but as ser­vice root­ed in sys­tems that must de­liv­er for cit­i­zens. She added that he was al­so a re­flec­tive thinker on de­vel­op­ment, con­sis­tent­ly rais­ing is­sues of fair­ness, ac­count­abil­i­ty and in­sti­tu­tion­al co­her­ence.

“He asked ques­tions that mat­ter: Are our poli­cies fair? Are they co­her­ent? Are we us­ing our re­sources in the best na­tion­al in­ter­est?” she said.

She al­so high­light­ed his work at the NCPD, where he cham­pi­oned in­clu­sion, dig­ni­ty and op­por­tu­ni­ty for per­sons with dis­abil­i­ties.

“He rep­re­sent­ed the very spir­it of the In­de­pen­dent Bench: mea­sured, non-par­ti­san and al­ways guid­ed by the na­tion­al in­ter­est,” Attzs added.

Gov­ern­ment Sen­ate Leader Dar­rell Al­la­har de­scribed Creese as cour­te­ous, hum­ble, ap­proach­able and al­ways will­ing to as­sist.

“He leaves an un­de­ni­able lega­cy of na­tion­al ser­vice,” Al­la­har said.

Op­po­si­tion Sen­ate Leader Dr Amery Browne said Creese’s rur­al up­bring­ing, ground­ed in fam­i­ly and com­mu­ni­ty, shaped his life­long ded­i­ca­tion to ser­vice.

“He was very much a pub­lic ser­vant for most of his ca­reer,” Browne said, as he al­so ref­er­enced a trib­ute from the NCPD.

Sen­ate Pres­i­dent Wade Mark, who served along­side Creese, said he ex­em­pli­fied the high­est ideals of pub­lic life.

“He demon­strat­ed pro­fes­sion­al­ism, in­tegri­ty and un­wa­ver­ing moral fi­bre in his pur­suit of na­tion­al de­vel­op­ment,” Mark said.

Mark al­so re­called that un­der Creese’s lead­er­ship, the Joint Se­lect Com­mit­tee on Land and In­fra­struc­ture be­came the first to in­vite and ques­tion a prime min­is­ter and a works min­is­ter dur­ing a pub­lic in­quiry in­to Trinidad and To­ba­go’s fer­ry ser­vice.

“Tru­ly a mem­o­rable and pi­o­neer­ing mo­ment in par­lia­men­tary over­sight,” Mark said.

He al­so shared a per­son­al re­flec­tion, re­call­ing Creese’s dis­tinc­tive Nehru jack­et and de­scrib­ing him as a man guid­ed by grace and ser­vice.

“Sen­a­tor Creese was such a man—with such a heart and such a soul,” Mark said.