Sir Howard Cooke, Governor-General, left, congratulates Mr. Herbert Denham "Denny" Repole, the famous architect, on being awarded the national honour of the Order of Distinction, Commander Class (C.D.). The ceremony took place at Mr. Repole's home yesterday. - Junior Dowie/Staff Photographer HERBERT DENHAM Repole, the renowned Jamaican architect, was yesterday conferred with the national honour of the Order of Distinction, Commander Class (C.D.), at a ceremony at his St. Andrew home, by Sir Howard Cooke, Governor-General.
At the investiture, Sir Howard remarked that "Denny" Repole has been an outstanding example of skill and "understanding, with passion, where we are coming from and where we are going".
Mr. Repole, who was unable, because of illness, to attend the National Heroes' Day ceremony at Kings House where the awards are normally conferred, accepted the honour with his wife, Dahlia, principal of Excelsior Community College, by his side.
"The ecstasy of reward must always be preceded by the agony of preparation and work," he said. He expressed love and appreciation for his family and friends who filled his Lanark Close home to celebrate the occasion.
Mr. Repole, 69, who was clearly overwhelmed, in between tears, showed his humorous side by disclosing secret signatures he left on buildings he designed over his long career.
To the amusement of his audience, after thanking his clients for giving him the freedom to express his creativity, said: "They could have paid me more".
Mr. Vayden McMorris, like Mr. Repole, a Fellow of the Jamaica Institute of Architects, said of his friend, "In this architect, we have a winner and we thank God he is in our midst".
Denny Repole has been responsible for the design of several buildings in Jamaica, including the Alister McIntyre building at the University of the West Indies, Mona, and has won design competitions for the monuments to National Heroes George William Gordon, Paul Bogle and Norman Washington Manley and for the Belize Central Bank. Also, he has been featured in an exhibition of the work of architects of black African ancestry.
He is a past president of the Jamaica Institute of Architects, honorary member of both the Columbian Society of Architects and the Mexican Society of Architects, and was an executive member of the Pan American Federation of Architects' Associations. He started the architectural firm H.D. Repole Associates in 1967 and eventually restructured it into Repole Architects, Planners in 1982.
