“Our nation owes him a lot of gratitude” – former President on passing of Dr Luncheon

Reflecting on the great life and outstanding contributions of the late Dr Roger Luncheon (July 17, 1949– August 2, 2023), former President Donald Ramotar expressed that “our nation owes him a lot of gratitude” for all he had done for the development of the country.
During a recent interview with Guyana Times, Ramotar remarked that Dr Luncheon’s death was a great loss to the country, as he made significant contributions to Guyana during his many years spent in public service.
“He gave his best, the fact that he served five Presidents of this country with distinction is in a way a testament to the quality of man that he was and the quality of work that he produced. Our nation owes him a lot of gratitude; we thank him for the contribution that he has made,” the former President said.
He added that Dr Luncheon was very strong against oppression and as such, decided to join the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) to make a difference in the lives of the poor and the working class.
“The other good thing about it, he was a person who was very strong against oppression and that’s why he joined the PPP and there [were] a lot of qualities that he had…he admired the qualities that Dr Jagan, [and] he himself had the sense of being incorruptible. He was a down-to-earth person who constantly thought about the poor and the working class of our society,” Ramotar remarked.
He shared that since Dr Luncheon left the medical field to serve in a higher office, he still displayed a love for medicine, and was still involved in the field in many ways.
“I think his whole life was spent in public service – first in medicine, he was a very good doctor. After 1992, I think he decided to serve at a higher level where he could solve more ills in the society than just by looking after people. He still kept a strong interest and a love for medicine, and he was still involved in many ways in that regard,” Ramotar told this publication.
He noted that during his tenure in office he had the opportunity to work closely with Luncheon who played an important role in the implementation of a lot of decisions that were made at Cabinet.
“We had to be working very close with each other, he was more of an implementer, he helped me to implement a lot of the decisions we made at Cabinet, he was important to see that decisions were not left on paper, but to see that they were implemented and he did a great job,” Ramotar highlighted.
Luncheon served as the Cabinet Secretary and Head of the Presidential Secretariat under previous PPP/C Governments. He was also a senior Central and Executive Member of the PPP.
Throughout his life, he left a rich legacy of true commitment to service, patriotism, and a deep sense of national pride and hard work for the people of Guyana.
Dr Luncheon was a graduate of Queen’s College, after which he proceeded to study at Howard University in Washington, DC, and became an internal medicine specialist in nephrology.
After serving the Health Ministry as an Internal Medicine Consultant, he became head of the Internal Medicine Department. He worked at the University of Guyana as an Associate Professor of the Medical Practitioners Programme.
A member of the PPP since the early 1980s, Luncheon served as head of the Presidential Secretariat from 1992 to 2015. He also chaired and served on a number of Boards during this time, including the NIS and the Defence Board. He was also Chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee.
Dr Luncheon is the third PPP/C stalwart to have died in a year, following the death of Bibi Shadick in August 2022 and the death of party co-founder and renowned Attorney-at-Law Ashton Chase, OE, SC, last month.