Leroy King, the former Chief Executive Officer of the Financial Services Regulatory Commission, was laid to rest yesterday following a funeral service at the Bible Speaks Seventh Day Adventist Church that drew several government officials and was streamed live on YouTube.
King died in early November while serving jail time, though it remains unclear whether he died in prison or at a hospital. He was 80 years old.
Among those attending were Prime Minister Gaston Browne and several cabinet ministers including Health Minister Molwyn Joseph, Foreign Affairs Minister Chet Greene, Information Minister Melford Nicholas, and Tourism Minister Charles Fernandez.
Minister Nicholas delivered an extensive tribute focusing on King’s political organizing skills and his impact on the St. John’s City East constituency. He described King as a meticulous organizer who would not accept mediocrity and was instrumental in his early political success.
Minister Melford Nicholas speaks at Leroy King Funeral Service
“If I had to pick an individual who was most responsible for the early success that I had in the St. John’s City East constituency, it would be Leroy King,” Nicholas said. “He had knowledge of the environment. He knew the process. He was willing to teach. But above all, his very character. He was a driver.”
Nicholas recounted how King’s attention to detail extended to planning constituency Christmas parties with “literally seven layers” of preparation, and described King as exceptionally charitable despite his taste for nice things. He recalled King giving the shoes off his feet to a constituent in need and said King “gave everything that he had to the people in St. John City East.”
The minister credited King with teaching him political strategy, including the importance of voter registration drives. “He said, Mel, do you know we’re going to have two elections this year? The first election is the reregistration. You’ve got to be able to get out there and outregister the guy,” Nicholas recalled.
Nicholas emphasized that King’s influence extended beyond St. John’s City East to the entire northern zone of Antigua and played a crucial role in the Antigua Labour Party’s political organization. “The fact that the Antigua Labor Party remains strong today, and the comeback that it did in 2014, there was no small part of that, that Leroy King was not responsible for,” he said.
