Celebrity media republished the report based on the email news provided by diplomat Washington. Diplomat
St. Lucia's former ambassador to the United States, Joseph Edsel Edmunds, displays his acrylic paintings at Art Impact USA’s first annual International 2016 Art Exhibition in Washington DC. Edmunds, 89, died July 21. (Photo by Larry Luxner)
Prominent scientist, diplomat, conservationist, artist and poet Joseph Edsel Edmunds, a former ambassador of St. Lucia to the United States, died July 21 at the age of 89.
With just 180,000 people, St. Lucia—one of the smallest countries in the Western Hemisphere—is barely half the size of Montgomery County, Maryland, where Edmunds resided until his death.
Yet his legacy “is one of profound impact and lasting inspiration,” said Allen Chastanet, leader of St. Lucia’s parliamentary opposition, in a Facebook post citing the late ambassador’s numerous awards. Among them: Office of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (OBE) and the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Legacy Award.
“And the honor of having a nematode, Longidorus edmunsi, named after him,” he added, “is a testament to his exceptional contributions to nematology and agriculture.”
David E. Lewis, vice-president of Manchester Trade Ltd., called Edmunds “my great friend and mentor” and said he was “a stalwart supporter of Caribbean regionalism and integration, and always ready to mentor and support the next generation.”
Edmunds is survived by his wife, Lucy Mohamed-Edmunds, and sons Anton and Sebastian.
“We very much viewed him as a renaissance man, a great father, and of course a great diplomat who was committed to the Caribbean and its place in the hemisphere,” said Anton Edmunds, 58, who himself served as ambassador in Washington from 2016 and 2021. “For me personally, it was the greatest professional honor to follow in his footsteps as ambassador.”
Joseph Edsel Edmunds in an undated photo as St. Lucia’s ambassador to the Organization of American States. (Photo courtesy of Anton Edmunds)
Currently general manager for the Caribbean at the Washington-based Inter-American Development Bank, Edmunds said his father’s biggest virtues were his patience and willingness to listen to all sides of an issue.
“He was not an overtly political person, and he really and truly enjoyed a good dialogue,” he said. “At the end of the day, he was just very much an advocate for peaceful solutions in the hemisphere.”
The elder Edmunds, who was born in 1935, earned a bachelor’s degree in agronomy from the University of Puerto Rico in Mayagüez. From there, he went to Cornell University, receiving a master’s degree in plant pathology and a PhD in nematology.
Among other things, he was director of R&D at the Windward Islands Banana Research and Development Center, senior research fellow at the University of the West Indies, and director of the general secretariat of the Organization of American States (OAS) in Suriname.
In addition to a stint as senator in the St. Lucian government, Edmunds served for 13 years as St. Lucia’s ambassador in Washington, with concurrent accreditation to the OAS. At the time of his departure in 1997, he was vice-dean of the DC diplomatic corps. Following his diplomatic career, Edmunds served as consultant to various international agencies on projects in the South Pacific, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean.
Edmunds was also an artist. In January 2016—well into his retirement—Edmunds unveiled some of his works at Art Impact USA’s first annual international art exhibition in Washington’s Penn Quarter, along with 14 other artists from various countries.
Anton Edmunds, left, and his father, Joseph Edsel Edmunds, attend a benefit gala for St. Lucians in the diaspora. Both men previously served as St. Lucia’s ambassador to the United States. (Photo courtesy of Anton Edmunds)
By then, he had already been an artist for 30 years, but, as he told the Diplomat, “I discovered myself in the States.”
“I’ve always dabbled in the arts, and when I was made ambassador, I was given a beautiful home with four floors, but they didn’t provide any art,” he said at the time. “I’m not a trained artist by any means, but I filled up the whole house with my own works, and exhibited here and there.”
After leaving office, Edmunds bought a house in Rockville, he said, “but it was too small to accommodate all my art, so I converted my garage into a studio.”
None of Edmunds’ acrylic paintings could be mistaken for the kind of art typically purchased by cruise-ship tourists while in port.
“I often say I am an artist from the Caribbean, and not necessarily a Caribbean artist,” he said. “When you talk about Caribbean art, you think of canoes, mountains, beaches and coconut trees. But most of my work is a conceptualization. I also dabble in poetry and I have written a book of poems. And as a former ambassador, I delve into world affairs.”
Raymond Alcide Joseph was Haiti’s ambassador here from 2004 to 2010 and knew Joseph well.
Joseph Edsel Edmunds (center) attends a family birthday party in 2010. (Photo courtesy of Anton Edmunds)
“I used to joke with him at times using some words in Creole, because they also speak Creole in St. Lucia,” recalled Joseph, 92, who now lives in Brooklyn. “’With your name—Joseph—we are family,’” I told him, and he’d usually flash a smile.”
Antonio J. Colorado Jr., Puerto Rico’s former secretary of state and resident commissioner in Washington, also has fond memories of Edmunds.
“Knowing that he had studied in Puerto Rico, we became very close in things that had to do with the islands, and especially with St. Lucia,” said Colorado, 85, architect of Puerto Rico’s project in the 1980s and early 1990s to link the US Caribbean Basin Initiative with the island’s own Section 936 tax incentive program. “We also established several businesses in St. Lucia. On several occasions, he would even come with us to St. Lucia and meet with the prime minister.”
Beyond his political and scientific contributions, Edmunds was a key figure in St. Lucia’s conservation movement, advocating for sustainable practices and environmental preservation.
Denis Antoine, a former Washington-based ambassador from Grenada, called Edmunds “a pioneering voice for small island developing states” in the Caribbean, and worldwide.
“He weighed in on the multidimensional challenges facing the Caribbean in its drive for sustainable development, and the need for more effective US-Caribbean relations,” Antoine told the Diplomat in an email from Grenada. “He was an artist, a scientist, a family man, a son of St. Lucia, and a true champion of the arts and culture. He fought for peace and justice in the inter-American system and contributed to making our region in the world a better place.”
By Larry Luxner
Miami native Larry Luxner, a veteran journalist and photographer, has reported from more than 100 countries in Latin America, Africa, Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Asia for a variety of news outlets. He lived for many years in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and the Washington, D.C., area before relocating to Israel in January 2017. Larry has been news editor of The Washington Diplomat since 2005.