Greatness is measured by the quality of one's legacy to posterity.
S ir William Arthur Lewis, Nobel laureate in Economics, has bequeathed to St. Lucia, the Caribbean, and the world, a legacy of rich insights, original thought and creative ideas in the field of Development Economics and related disciplines which will survive the test of time and which will serve as a beacon and inspiration to the people of St. Lucia and the Caribbean. At the London School of Economics, where he chose to pursue the degree of Bachelor of Commerce, he not only topped the class in the final exams, but established a record of distinctions which remains unequaled and unsurpassed. Sir Arthur took up the challenge of serving a developing world in search of economic freedom to match the political winds of change. In his early writings, Arthur Lewis challenged the hallowed international division of labor which ascribed to the developing world the role of provider of primary products to the developed world in exchange for manufactured goods. He prescribed for the developing world the potion of vigorous pursuit of both agricultural and industrial policies through the export of agricultural commodities, import substitution, the development of a self-sufficient economy based on the domestic market and the export of manufactured products.