ESSEQUIBIANS,  particularly villagers of Queenstown on the Essequibo Coast, will tomorrow pay their last respects to a revered son, the late Clarence Frederick Ellis, 80. His body will be conveyed, then, from Merriman Funeral Home, Bent and Lime Streets, Werk-en-Rust, Georgetown to his home village and interred at the cemetery there, following a service to celebrate his life at St Bartholomew’s Anglican Church, also in Queenstown.

There is however, an opportunity for relatives and friends residing in the city, to view his body during a service at St James-The-Less Anglican Church, David Street, Kitty today starting today at 15:00 hrs.

Born September 7, 1929, the first of 10 children from the union of Samuel and Elsie Ellis, Clarence died on April 17, after a long illness, in Washington, D.C, in the United States (U.S.), where he lived with a son, Gareth, in Bowie, Maryland.

A former Deputy Governor of Bank of Guyana (BOG), Vice-Chairman of the former State Planning Commission and Alternate Executive Director of the World Bank and Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) for Guyana and other CARICOM countries, Ellis attended Queenstown Primary School where he received his formative education.
He won a Government County Scholarship to Queen’s College (QC) and moved to live in the city.
Ellis was a primary school teacher for many years before going to England to study and earn a Bachelor of Science (Economics) degree from University of Leicester and a Master of Science (Economics) degree in development economics from London School of Economics (LSE).
Midway in his career, he undertook advanced studies in economics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the U.S. and began his attachment to the BOG in 1967, immediately after graduating from LSE as a senior economist.
His first appointment was as senior economist but he rose through to the post of Deputy Governor.
He was, concurrently from 1978 to 1982, Chairman of the State Planning Commission. In the latter year, Ellis proceeded on leave to MIT and spent 18 months studying and researching the economics of developing countries.
He later became an economic adviser, appointed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), to the East Caribbean Central Bank and was based in St. Kitts. After spending four years there, he was named Alternate Executive Director of the World Bank and, three years after, moved to the IDB in a similar position.
When he left the IDB, Ellis went into private practice and worked as an international consultant for many years.
Ellis played a key role, as a representative of Guyana, in negotiations with the World Bank, the IMF and the IDB, travelling widely as a member on several Guyanese  delegations to bilaterals in numerous countries.
His wife of 36 years, Patricia Ellis nee Moore, pre-deceased him in 1999 but he is survived by other son, Malcolm of New Haven, Connecticut; daughters Cyrine George of Georgetown and Saran Ellis, who is between postings as an international consultant in Africa and stepchildren, Compton Haynes and Pamela Haynes, both residing in London, England; eight siblings, Purves Ellis of Montreal, Canada; Dennis Ellis of Springdale, Maryland;  David Ellis and Claude Ellis of  Brooklyn, New York;  Maude Williams of New Amsterdam, Berbice; Bernice Franklin of Queens, New York and Gwendolyn Neblett of North Port, Florida; nine grandchildren and three great grandchildren.