- Ian Allen/Staff Photographer
Ancile Gloudon was awarded the Murgrave Centenary medal for his contribution to horticulture.
Avia Ustanny, Gleaner Writer
THE LATIN names of his orchids are a jumble in the unfamiliar brain, but they roll off the tongue of Ancile Gloudon like sweet music. Pointing to one, "This is my plant," he said proudly. The hybrid orchid is named after his daughter Anya Gloudon.
We are guests in the singular greenhouse which houses the rare and not so rare orchid species babied by Ancile Gloudon. The plant home is 40 years old.
Now aged 70, Ancile Gloudon endures in as good a shape as his self-propagating orchids. Listed as one of the top 40 scientists of the Caribbean for his contribution to food technology and botany, Ancile is always in the thick of things, whether it be in the bush to collect rare orchid species; or preparing a musical of the life and times of Jesus, as he is doing these days when not in his garden.
Gloudon, awarded the Musgrave Centenary medal by the Jamaican Government for his contribution to horticulture, also worked for many years in the field of applied chemistry. In one publication profiling eminent Jamaican scientists, his work in the area food technology is recorded.
Working as controller of the Food Technology division of the Ministry of Trade and Industry in the early '70s, he had a special interest in preserving foods. He has been accredited with the development of coconut cream from dry coconuts and of breadfruit flour which was exported to the United States for use in making bread biscuits. Breadfruit and banana flour were much in demand by segments of the US population who could not have the gluten in regular wheat flour.
Although Gloudon appears to be home-grown, he was really born in Port of Spain, Trinidad. His mother, Gwendolyn Maynard-Gloudon, was a school teacher and his father, Hubert Gloudon was book-keeper.
Ancile attended primary school at Coffee St. EC School where he won a government exhibition scholarship, placing sixth in the island. He then attended Queen's Royal College, the high school where it was that a botany teacher ignited his love of orchids.
The seventh graders were supposed to be studying unicellular organisms, but he spent the first 35 minutes of a 45-minute session discussing the plants.
Imaginations aflame, Ancile and two of his classmates went to San Juan where they found a number of the plants.
"Orchids are unique in the plant kingdom. They make their own food, needing no help. And, unlike other plants, they can make their home in some of the most unlikely places, including dead trees," the enthusiast told Outlook.
Normally, they don't die very early, Ancile adds. "There is something that helps them to keep on living. "The beauty of the self-propagating plants are not matched by any other plant. Each orchid also has its own vector which it uses for pollination. Hence the number of hybrids is not very many.
Gloudon's love of plants really began at home in Port of Spain, where his mother had a garden and loved plants too. She grew anthurium, lilies and ferns and Ancille would help her to look after them, following her into the woods to gather rotting wood which she used as mulch in her garden. She would also throw tea leaves and egg shells on her anthuriums.
By the time he left Trinidad for Jamaica, Gloudon's orchid collection numbered 90, including 30 different genera. When other young boys were out looking girls, he would be in the bush around Sangre Grande where the cocoa plants and grape trees were excellent hosts for orchids.
The young Trinidadian did Botany at high school for one year, but was eventually thrown out of the class (his school life was rather turbulent), so he switched to physics and zoology instead. He had his sights set on doing medicine, but did not have the financial resources to do so.
Fortuitously, he won the prestigious Princess Alice Scholarship and went to the University of West Indies, Mona, to do the Bachelor's of Science in Chemistry. Living at UWI's Gibraltar Hall in 1952, he discovered a number of orchids growing in Guava Ridge during the first Christmas break.
He also found some at Old Pera in St. Thomas. He was eventually introduced to the local orchid society with which he has been ever since, working many years as president and in other official capacities. Since this time, Ancile Gloudon has authored and co-authored three books on orchids.
The first, 'Caribbean Orchids', was done with Aimee Webster Delisser. 'Orchids of Jamaica' was written with A. Tobisch. There may be another, if time allows.
Food division
The year was 1957 when Gloudon joined the processed foods division of the Ministry of Industry and Commerce. There he worked on pioneer projects to develop lines of Jamaican processed food. He also participated in fish and shell fish preservation studies in the USA between 1959 and 1960. At all times, he enjoyed rapid promotion on the job.
He was appointed senior food inspector, then controller of the Food Technology division and was also inspector, analyst of the Bureau of Standards between 1960 and 1972.
It was during this time that he worked on coconut cream, breadfruit banana flour projects with an eye to their commercial potential.
Personal ventures included the creation of Jabal construction company and Gloudon's Orchid Nursery Limited.
But, his research into food preservation was his passion, second then only to his love of orchids.
Where did his love life come in all of this? Let the facts speak for themselves. It was while on one of his studying jaunts abroad that Ancile decided to cut the programme short and come home and propose to his girlfriend, Barbara Goodison. It was time to settle down, he said, and Barbara was the one to whom he could not say goodbye.
Marriage
The two were married on April 23, 1960. Next month, April 2004, they will celebrate 44 years of marriage. Ancile and Barbara are parents of Lisa, Jason and Anya, all of whom currently work in the field of computer technology.
Wife Barbara Gloudon is a communications consultant, journalist and playwright, who is also household name in Jamaica, famous for her weekly radio talk show and her yearly direction of the national pantomime.
Gloudon says that his marriage has endured as long as it has because of the principles of "honesty, trust and working together."
When, not long after they were married, he told Barbara that he wanted to build a house and build it himself so that they could stop paying rent, she did not hesitate in supporting him. He did just that and saved himself a whole lot of money in the process.
He subsequently built three other dwellings, including a new home further up the road in Gordon Town, a house for daughter Anya and a flat for son Jason. Barbara cashed in her insurance policy to help with the first project and also accompanied him on inspection visits to factories at night so that he could earn extra money.
First home
The exterior of their first house was white-washed because of lack of funds. Then, they got doors and windows for Christmas gifts and so they moved in. Working together like this in everything has helped to increase their happiness over the years.
Daughter Anya caught the building bug apparently, because one morning she woke up and told her father that she wanted some land. When she started digging the foundation on her own, he proceeded to help her to do what she wanted, constructing a two-floor, bungalow of wood and stone.
Husband and wife Barbara and Ancile have also travelled to Europe together, going from country to country with a tent in their car. It was very enjoyable and the closeness developed even more, Ancile recalls. The Gloudons also share a love of the arts. Ancile has acted in several stage productions and is right now in the middle of putting together a musical with dialogue of the life and times of Jesus. The audience will be delighted with several new songs, he says. Already, he has some CDs on the market with his original compositions.
Retirement, if we can call it that, is far from boring for this transplanted Jamaican. Ancile Gloudon is also the organist at the St. Andrew Seventh-Day Adventist church.
In between his music, his orchids and his family, life and love is still blooming.
