Dear Editor,
I WRITE in tribute to Ray Sundar, a Berbician Guyanese-American, who passed on a week ago at age 72 (born in February 1950) and whose remains were cremated Saturday in Queens; he was ailing in recent years. Ray, formerly of Clifton, made significant contributions to the Guyanese community in New York and to Guyana.

Ray was a man of many facets in life – community leader, philanthropist, sports enthusiast, cultural promoter and patriot of Guyana and America. He was caring and compassionate. His legacy lived kindness when he was in good health and when his business was doing well, he helped many financially.

As a fellow Port Mourant native, I knew of Ray during my youthful days as he travelled from Clifton to Free Yard to attend high school. His family was well known; his father (Harry) was an outstanding cricketer of Port Mourant and a man who had the ‘name’ of repute (Sundar) in the sugar estate. He was well known throughout Berbice as the factory manager of Port Mourant Estate and then held the same title at Albion factory when the factory shifted location.

Ray attended Roman Primary School (Portuguese Quarter) and Comprehensive High School. He migrated to the US in 1970 to pursue tertiary education. Members of his family, including his parents and some other siblings, joined him in 1978 and subsequent years.

In NY, he embarked on a career of real estate businessman. He became real estate agent and later a broker/owner of his own agency. He helped many Guyanese, “Trinis,” and other West Indians to become homeowners.  He also mentored several people in real estate, and he used proceeds from his business to sponsor cultural and cricket events.

Ray became a member of the Indo-Caribbean Federation (ICF) and rose to the position of President in 1989. He produced a newspaper, Indo-Caribbean Review, to which I also made contributions. And he also introduced cricket matches in NYC – two teams vying for the Sundar Cup (named after his famed father-cricketer) during the 1990s.

While as President we were very close. Though he was relatively well off and had access to resources, I never made any request to him to fund any of my programmes or activities, political movement or culture. He was always praiseworthy of the work of a few of us for selfless commitment to Guyana’s freedom from authoritarian rule.

He organised lectures and immigration conferences while leading the ICF. After his tenure as President of the ICF, Ray remained active with the organization, promoting various cultural and sports activities. He supported the struggle for the restoration of democracy in Guyana. He did fundraisers for Dr Leslie Ramsammy and also gave donations to Dr Jagan and the PPP.  After democracy was restored in October 1992, Ray did fundraisers in aid of school rehabilitation in Guyana, including Comprehensive, Roman School, and Tain Primary, all of which were in deplorable condition in 1992. Ray and I teamed up in an initiative to collect materials to ship to Guyana in 1993. A lot of materials were brought to his office for shipment to Guyana. Ray continued to be active in community affairs, even after Jagan’s death in March 1997. He focused on cricket. Ray organised and sponsored cricket matches.  He also made charitable contributions to Christian educational programmes in NY. He helped fund construction of a science lab at that Catholic school. Ray honoured his commitments, living by his word.

I and ICF family cherished the memories of Ray Sundar. Ralph Tamesh, current President of ICF, said Ray would be long remembered for his contributions to the organisation as the third President. “He epitomised leadership, heart of service, and commitment to family, friends, and community,” said Ralph.

Yours truly,
Vishnu Bisram