Jamaica Gleaner News - Thank you, Steve Harle - Sunday

Munro College has proven itself to be a school among schools, one of the best in the country. The man who had much to do with what Munro is today - Steve Harle. The great educator, for that he was, died on February 27 and hundreds turned out to say thanks to him two Saturdays ago. Arguably the best chemistry teacher the country has seen, Harle was also recognised as one of Munro's most legendary second masters. After 50 incredible years of service there is not much that can be said about a life so well lived that is not painfully obvious. There are no simple words to express how much is owed to this great educator. The most that can be done is to say thank you.

For Steve Harle

We caught wind of his presence

Before we saw him

A combined deer and Sesame Street name

Uttered in awe by seeming giants

Who gave us, shrinking into too-big khakis

Dubious welcome to this City Set Up On a Hill

Unlike most, flesh did not disappoint legend

Steel eyes, a parallel colon

Above an underscore of a mouth

Seeming to always lean into this wind

(Regardless of direction or still)

That rappels up the Santa Cruz Mountains

To angle even pine trees backward

Only a camera's jiggle missing

To make his sandals' slap on the barbecue

King Kong's stomp

A voice fusing Gregory Isaacs and Sean Connery

To command or bemoan "Sonny boy ..."

Silence and thunder went before him

The stillness of boys blending khakis

Into woodwork to escape notice

The clatter of shoes vacating the scene of a vice

For he was the vice principal of vice principals

Designed to seek and terminate the vices

And devious devices of boys in need of advice

Who, left to our own devices

Would have destroyed the trust of Munro and Dickenson

As we ran amok

His name for supper duty

Sent sixth-formers running to beat 6:40 bell

There would be no breaks for seniority

Rules were rules

I saw one apply shoe brakes and freeze

Half-way down Coke House fire escape

Then retreat upwards to escape him

For he was a tough man, but never cruel

And a fair man

Punctuating his point

With your angled top button

Sheer force of will and gimlet glare

Making 300 boys gathered before PC

Amend the final word in the third line

Of 'MC chawney rice and peas'

To 'sick'

At some point we learnt his joy in living

That he could actually laugh, too

Jogging on to A Field, oversized shorts flapping

To take a penalty when Munro's teachers played STETHS

Growling "Hatchie, you're ready?"

Before striking a ziggy

Chemistry class could be a blast

... literally

The crash and tinkle of a test tube

Creating a combustion of giggles

Then another

Turned up the Bunsen burner of his wrath

He asked

"You break one test tube you laugh

You break another test tube you laugh

Why don't we gather all the test tubes and break them

And have a big laugh?"

As he taught by example

Elements of life missing

From the periodic table

One physics class he smiled - briefly

When we laughed

As he taught us the principle of the pendulum

Reversing words to instruct

That we allow it to 'fring sweely'

And we saw he was actually human

We come today to this place

In and out of khakis

Munronians with bald heads

Munronians with bald chins

Munronians with old ties in compressed Vs

Munronians with new ties in clumsy knots

Munronians who've long spilt from their blazers

Munronians with blazer sleeves swallowing their fingertips

Today all As, Xs and Alphas

Feet muted in his presence

Bringing his legends here

To horizontal proof that the flesh of legends does die

And finally concede to this wind

That rappels up the Santa Cruz Mountains

To honour eternal proof

That if we live near his plumbline

As the pendulum of life swings freely

We too can have a blast, a laugh

And 'fring sweely'

- Melville Cooke