Most Richly Blessed

That is how the late Dr. Ernest Ariasingham Champion felt about the hand
that life dealt him. The following poem, whose author is unknown to me,
was his favorite poem, which was read at his funeral service by Dr. Dante J.
Thurairatnam, depicts Ernest Champion’s relationship with God and his
attitude towards life:
“I asked for strength that I might achieve,
I was given weakness that I might learn to obey.
I asked for health that I might do great things,
I was given infirmity that I might do better things.
I asked for riches that I might be happy,
I was given poverty that I might be wise.
I asked for power that I might have the praise of men,
I was made weak that I might feel the need of God.
I asked for all things that I might enjoy life,
I was given life that I might enjoy all things.
I got nothing I asked for
But everything I hoped for.
And almost despite myself
I among men am most richly blessed.
He’s always with me
I am most richly blessed.”

Despite the sorrow of losing, before he was a year old, the mother who gave
birth to him, and the pain and agony of not knowing her love, he always felt
that God amply blessed him when his aunt, Soranam Scott, became his
surrogate mother. He had very fond and pleasant memories of growing up in
the home provided by my grandparents, Soranam and Thuraisamy Scott,
whom he called Amma and Papa. When the Scott family moved from
Malaysia to Jaffna, before the onset of the Second World War, Ernest, along
with E.T. and R.R. Scott, was enrolled at St. John’s College. Ernest often
told me he felt blessed and privileged to be part of the Scott household and
attend St. John’s College, especially during the era of the famous Johnian
sportsman, R. R. Scott. Ernest was the envy of his classmates because he
lived under the same roof as R. R. Scott. The death of R. R. Scott on January
30, 1999 had a profound effect on Ernest Champion as the last link to the
family he grew up with was severed with the passing away of his hero.
 It was in 1956 that Ernest started a family of his own when he married
Peace Seevamalar Seevaratnam. Peace was his strength, tranquility,
companion, friend, confidant and counselor. Peace stood by him and
encouraged him through the many career changes that necessitated their
living in foreign countries. She was his biggest admirer and one who helped,
encouraged and spurred him to accomplish the heights he did. Their
relationship is aptly described in the words of George Elliot, “What greater
thing is there for two human souls than to feel that they are joined together
to strengthen each other in all labor, to minister to each other in all sorrow,
to share with each other in all gladness, to be one with each other in the
silent unspoken memories?” It was the strength of their love that gave Peace
the emotional and physical stamina to look after her husband almost twenty-
four hours a day during his illness the last three years. He truly was blessed
to have had Peace as his life’s partner.

He often remarked that his blessings increased manifold with the advent of
their children, Rohan and Rosha. His devotion to his children is best
described in the words of William Wordsworth: “Exceeding was the love he
bare to (them).” They were “His heart and his heart’s joy!” He was
extremely proud of them and their achievements. Rohan, who had a very
successful career as a member of the senior executive management teams of
such blue-chip companies as AT&T, Federal Express and IBM, is now the
President and Chief Executive Officer of his own company. Rosha is a
Professor of Medicine at the Medical College of Ohio and has her own clinic
to provide medical care to the poor. They are both happily married and
enjoying the pleasures of raising their children. Ernest and Peace surely were
most richly blessed to have raised such talented, loving and caring human
beings.

Blessed was Ernest with an inquiring and razor sharp mind that was capable
of grasping and analyzing the most complex literary and philosophical
concepts. He also had the ability to teach difficult concepts to others at their
level of understanding. His innate talent for oral and written communication,
sharpened by training in journalism, made it easy for him to present to his
audience lucidly, succinctly and with masterful simplicity the subject matter
of his choice. He was an excellent speaker whose choice of words was
impeccable and his articulation crisp. His memory was almost photographic
and he dazzled many a school boy and college student with his magnificent
oration, from memory, stanza after stanza of poetry. Oliver Goldsmith may
as well had the wonderment of Dr. Champion’s students in mind when he
wrote:
“And still they gaz’d, and still the wonder grew
That one small head could carry all he knew.”

Wonder we did at his repertoire of humorous anecdotes and his sense of

timing and masterful delivery. In Sri Lanka, Africa, England and the States I
have watched him regale students, friends and relatives with a myriad of
anecdotes. He got the material for his anecdotes by observing people and
events. To illustrate survival by one’s wit, he often narrated the following
incident that he witnessed while he was a teacher at Jaffna College. On this
particular day while he was cutting across the Brown Field, during his lunch
hour, he saw a group of middle school boys playing cricket. As he stopped
to watch, he witnessed a boy take a beautiful catch in slips and heard the
bowler scream “How’s that?” Obviously the burly batsman was out and the
schoolboy umpire enthusiastically barked, “out” with the customary raised
finger. Wanting to bat longer, even though he knew he was out, the burly
batsman walked up to the umpire with his bat menacingly raised and asked
threateningly, “Did you say out?” The umpire, fearing bodily harm, reacted
quickly by yelling at the top of his lungs, “No ball, not out”.

A sharp and inquiring mind, an excellent memory, a sense of humor, the

talent to communicate effectively, the ability to motivate and inspire others
to learn and the skill to lead by example are critical ingredients to be a truly
successful teacher. As a teacher, Ernest Champion was blessed with these
qualities. I had the good fortune of learning under him at Jaffna College and
Bowling Green State University. He was one of the best teachers I had. As
an educator he challenged us to broaden the vistas of our horizon by opening
our minds to new ideas and to new challenges. Above all, he was relentless
in his expectation of us to think for ourselves, to analyze any given situation
and to devise answers or solutions. At the high school level he required us to
read the English newspaper daily and to propose alternative views to the
editorial of the day. He wanted his students to be aware of what was
happening in the world around us, to question the veracity and plausibility of
the written word so that we may learn to avoid the pitfall of accepting it as
the gospel. Both in the classroom and in the sports field he demanded the
very best of his students and accepted nothing less. As a teacher, similar to
Mathew Arnold’s father, he did upraise with zeal
“The humble good from the ground,
Sternly repressest the bad!”
Dr. Champion expected discipline from his students both in the classroom
and in the playing field. . Yet, he did not believe in using the rod to
discipline the recalcitrant. He thought the rod; the sword and the gun were
the weapons of the weak. This stance did not make him very popular with
those individuals and institutions that preached and practiced the use of
physical force as the main form of discipline. Yet, he was firm in his
conviction that there are consequences to be paid for failure to follow the
moral and ethical concepts sanctioned by the community and the society at
large. God did not, he would say, resort to physical torture to punish man for
the original sin. Instead, He levied a greater punishment. He denied man the
privilege of communing with Him in person. Following the example of his
Master, Ernest Champion preferred deprivation as the method of
punishment. The following story relates how he handled a recalcitrant
student. In 1957, as the track and field coach, he produced one of the
strongest teams in that decade at Jaffna College. The team was slated to win
the championship at the Group Meet and do well in the Public Schools’
Meet later in the year. The first event at the Group Meet was the 110 yards
relay. A star athlete who was also a member of the 110 and 400 yards relay
teams, decided he did not want to run the 110 yards relay, the very first
event. Instead of informing his captain and obtaining permission from his
coach, he chose to surreptitiously stand among the crowd while the relay
was run and report to the coach after the event was over. Coach Champion
immediately walked the athlete to the Head Referee and withdrew him from
all of the events he was scheduled to participate in. He then ordered the boy
to leave the grounds. We were all appalled that the coach had ruined our
chance of securing the championship. Getting wind of our disappointment,
Coach Champion quickly gathered the team for a briefing and explained his
rationale for withdrawing the boy from participation. He told us the boy was
denied the opportunity to be part of the team and to represent the college
because he had let the college down, ruined the teammates chance to
participate in the Public Schools’ Meet and damaged the team spirit by
deliberately not running the relay. Later the coach also withdrew the colors
given to the boy for previous year’s performance. As I reflect back on the
incident now, John Donne’s poem “No man is an island, entire of itself;
every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main”, clarifies what our
coach was trying to imbibe in us. He taught us that we are “part of the main”
and when our actions hurt the team, the society or the nation, then we
deserve to loose the privilege of being part of that entity. We also learned
that doing our part and doing it well was more important and that winning
was not everything. He also taught us this concept in the classroom through
the study of Sir Henry Newbolt’s poem, Vitai Lampada:
“There’s a breathless hush in the Close to-night —
Ten to make and the match to win –
A bumping pitch and a blinding light,
An hour to play and the last man in.
And it’s not for the sake of a ribboned coat,
Or the selfish hope of a season’s fame,
But his captain’s hand on his shoulder smote –
‘Play up! play up! And play the game!”

Others went to bat to create opportunities for Ernest Champion to pursue

higher education and employment abroad. The wheels for his post graduate
study at the University of London were set in motion when my grandmother,
Soranam Scott, wanted Ernest, who was at that time living in Colombo and
working as Editor of Times of Ceylon, to live closer to her. At her request,
my father, the late Mr. K. C. Thurairatnam, Junior Vice Principal, Jaffna
College, negotiated a post graduate scholarship abroad and teaching post at
Jaffna College for Ernest Champion with the President, the late Rev, Dr. S.
K. Bunker; and the Principal, the late Mr. K. A. Selliah. It was at a cricket
match in 1966 that the Chief Justice of Sierra Leone, Mr. A. Nithianadan,
who was on furlough, discussed with Ernest Champion the possibility of a
position as a lecturer at the Milton Margai Training College in Freetown,
West Africa. Within months the Champion family moved to Freetown and
Ernest began his four-year stint as lecturer at Milton Margai. At the request
of Ernest Champion, my brother, Dante Thurairatnam, arranged a fellowship
for Ernest in 1970 to pursue a doctoral degree in English at Bowling Green
State University, Ohio.

“Freely did I get, more freely do I give now” a favorite expression of Rev.
Ratnanaygam, former chaplain of St. John’s College, illustrates the ardor
with which Dr. Champion spent his life helping others. The seeds of loving
and giving were sown early in his life when his surrogate parents, Soranam
and Thuraisamy Scott, instilled in him the scriptural injunction, “It is more
blessed to give than to receive.” To acknowledge the influence they had on
him he wrote, “To: Soranam and Thuraisamy Scott who taught me how to
love” in the preface of his book “Mr. Baldwin, I Presume”. From my
training in psychology and my experience as a former schoolteacher,
counselor and administrator, I find the expression “So much of what we
know of love we learn at home” to be true. Barb Upham writes, “Satisfaction
and fulfillment are by products of love. They belong only to those who can
reach beyond themselves; to whom giving is more important than
receiving.” His life of giving as an independent adult started when he
graduated from the University of Ceylon, and began teaching at St. John’s
College, Jaffna. With his first paycheck he began supporting his uncle who
was handicapped. He did this until the uncle passed away. There are many
relatives, friends and even strangers who were the recipients of his help and
love. He helped many persons find employment in Sierra Leone, West
Africa, and found scholarships for many others to pursue higher education in
the States. Helping others was a labor of love for him and he derived much
pleasure in seeing others succeeding in life. Dr. Albert Schweitzer, one of
the greatest humanitarians of all times, said, “the only ones among you who
will be really happy are those who have sought and found how to serve.”

In 1967, in my hour of need, Dr. Champion stretched his helping hand to

arrange a teaching job for me at Sierra Leone Grammar School, Freetown.
He also kept me in his home in Freetown so that I may save enough money
to go to the States to pursue higher education. Two years later my brother,
Dr. Dante Thurairatnam, had arranged a scholarship for me at Bowling
Green State University that paid for my tuition. I had saved money for the
living expenses but did not have the travel money. Dr. and Mrs. Champion
gave me the travel money despite the fact money was tight for them since
they also were moving to Bowling Green State University for him to pursue
a doctoral degree. For the first couple of years at Bowling Green they both
did menial jobs during holidays to cover living expenses. Their gesture of
kindness reminds me of Mary Dobson’s poem, “From Far Tibet”, which Dr.
Champion taught me in my Senior Class at Jaffna College:
“If one supply another’s need,
Not heeding his own woe,
A blessing, rich and great indeed,
Will God on him bestow.”
In my heart, I know that God has bestowed this promised blessing on Dr.
Champion, who crossed over on April 29, 1999 to his eternal home. His
family and his friends grieve the void and irreparable loss that his passing
away has created. While engulfed in grief and prayerfully seeking
consolation, the Epitaph by William Wordsworth came to mind and I offer
to you his friends and loved ones as a source of consolation from Ernest:
“WEEP not, beloved Friends! Nor let the air
For me with sighs be troubled. Not from life
Have I been taken; this is genuine life
And this alone—the life which now I live
In peace eternal; where desire and joy
Together move in fellowship without end.”
Dr. Champion touched my life and enriched it as my uncle, teacher, coach,
mentor and friend. It is through souls like him that I believe, along with
Mathew Arnold:
“In the noble and great who are gone;
Pure souls honour’d and blest …..
Helpers and friends of mankind..."

Goodbye Sir!

Written by Dr. Aggrey J. Thurairatnam