- Elmore Stoutt, Speaker
Mr Elmore Stoutt is known as a community builder, For more than fifty years, he has been involved in the advancement of young people, and has played an important role in many aspects of community development. His contributions in the field of education, as a teacher, principal, truancy officer and programme administrator, have been outstanding. Furthermore Mr. Stoutt has been, and still is, a major player in the preservation of Virgin Islands culture through music and storytelling. Elmore Stoutt began his teaching career in 1959 at the age of fourteen as a Pupil Teacher at the West End School, which like many schools at the time, was housed in a Methodist Church building. It served as a school during the week and a church at weekends. Following completion of his teacher’s training at the Leeward Islands Teacher Training College in 1969, he served as head teacher at a number of schools on Tortola. Further training at the University of the West Indies and at Murray House College and the University of Hull in the UK led him to the Department of Education and Culture, where he worked in Guidance Counselling and Education Management, and also as Truancy Officer. He returned to active teaching and for eighteen years served as Principal of the BVI High School, which is now renamed in his honour. Mr. Stoutt remains very active in the community even after formal retirement from public service. He continues to act as Truancy Officer working closely with parents and children. He is very active in music and other cultural activities and is a key member of Zion Sounds Gospel Funji Band and continues to passionately work to preserve and promote the heritage of the Virgin Islands.