By Lincoln DePradine
Many adults within the Grenadian-Canadian neighborhood would fondly bear in mind, as kids, attending Christmas events the place the function of Santa Claus was usually performed by Adrian Pitt, brother of a former justice of the Ontario Superior Court docket, the late Romain Pitt.
Lower than two months earlier than this yr’s Christmas Day, Pitt died. He was 90.
A service for Pitt was held final Saturday in Toronto, with the eulogy delivered by Grenada-born former Canadian MP and cupboard minister, Jean Augustine.
Pitt was a founding father of the Grenada Affiliation Toronto (GAT), which hosted the annual children’ get together and toy-giveaway every year at Christmas.
“We now have been lucky to have many great reminiscences of Adrian. As one of many founders of the group, and our resident Santa Claus, he shall be profoundly missed,’’ GAT stated in an announcement, expressing “honest and heartfelt condolences’’ on the passing of Pitt.
Earlier than leaving Grenada for Canada, Pitt was an authorized chemist who labored with the federal government as a pharmacist and a steward for each the primary Basic Hospital and the psychological hospital within the capital, St George’s.
For a short interval in 1965, he was employed as a employees pharmacist at Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Youngsters.
A lot of Pitt relations have made excellent contributions to their Diaspora communities, together with Sheldon – certainly one of his 4 kids. Sheldon is extremely regarded within the Hip Hop neighborhood in Canada as “Solitair’’, a producer, artiste, songwriter and studio engineer.
Justice Pitt, who died at age 84 in 2020, was appointed a choose in 1994. He served on the Ontario Superior Court docket of Justice till 2010.
The skilled profession of the late Adrian Pitt, an ardent credit score unionist, included serving as a monetary planner with Investor’s Group, till his retirement in 2002.
Pitt was “a gentleman’’, who has left a “shining report of service to the Grenadian neighborhood in Toronto, by way of his quite a few contributions as an expert accountant, as an lively member of his church, and thru his beneficiant service in his wider Diaspora neighborhood’’, stated newly appointed Grenada consul normal in Toronto, Gerry Hopkin.
“Mr. Pitt,’’ stated Hopkin, “shall be deeply missed and ceaselessly remembered by all of his household, buddies, associates and colleagues. Might his soul relaxation in peace as we have a good time his goodness and his legacy of yeoman service to our Diaspora neighborhood in Canada.’’
Pitt loved a wide selection of hobbies and extracurricular actions. They included cricket, soccer, snorkeling, swimming, biking, ballroom dancing and guitar-playing.
One other of his hobbies – distinctive in itself – was volunteering his time to ship treats and Caribbean newspapers to buddies and acquaintances.
“He collected the Caribbean newspapers and delivered them to the doorsteps of a few of his buddies, particularly those that didn’t exit very a lot, and at all times included somewhat deal with within the bag with the paper. He did that for years until he might now not drive,’’ recalled pal Jacinta Johnson. “I used to be one of many individuals whom he delivered newspapers to on Fridays and after I moved to Ottawa, he mailed them to me as soon as a month.’’
Pitt, who attended Our Girl of Good Counsel Caribbean Catholic Church in Toronto, was additionally within the performing arts; a pastime he started as a younger man in Grenada, together with serving as president of the “Bee Wee” Ballet, a Grenadian drama and artistic dance group.
In 1963, he acquired an award for his efficiency within the Shakespearean Pageant in St Lucia.
From 1966 to 1974, he was concerned in numerous Canadian drama teams such because the Caribbean Gamers and the Black Theatre of Canada, and likewise held membership in Black Arts of Canada.
Pitt, in 1975, performed the village priest in a theatrical manufacturing of Nigerian playwright Wole Soyinka’s “The Swamp Dwellers’’.
The Toronto Star, in reviewing the manufacturing, described Pitt’s efficiency as “first price’’.
Pitt “actually made a big mark within the theatre world’’ in Canada, stated Amah Harris, a veteran educator, theatre producer, director, playwright and actor.
Harris, extending sympathies to Pitt’s spouse Joan and different surviving family members, promised that she at all times will cherish “reminiscences of Adrian within the space of the theatre arts. Within the late Sixties, he was generally known as one of many lead performers within the Caribbean theatre group. Actually, Herb Whittaker, the Globe and Mail theatre critic, complimented the corporate’s work the place he starred with Vera Cudjoe, saying that it was the very best play that yr, in comparison with all the opposite skilled theatre productions within the Metropolis of Toronto.’’
Harris added that, “within the early Seventies, when Vera Cudjoe based Black Theatre Canada, one of many first skilled Black theatres in Canada, Adrian performed a lead function in its first main manufacturing.’’