Aston B McBean

Aston completed his Bachelor of Science Degree at Cornell University in New York, from 1958 – 1961. He continued his education with his Master of Science degree at the University of Toronto and Ontario from 1961 – 1963. Aston also received a Diploma at Mico Teachers Training College in Jamaica from 1945 – 1947.

Aston’s career started with his first job as a Community Development officer in rural Jamaica. He then worked as a headmaster of schools from 1948 – 1955. From 1964 – 1966, Aston lectured at the College of Arts, Science and Technology. He then moved on to the Antilles Chemical company as a project analyst. Between 1968 – 1978, Aston worked as a manager of Productivity at the Jamaica Industrial Development Corporation.

As Aston career developed, he then moved on to work as a manager at the Banana Board in Jamaica from 1978 – 1980. From 1981 to 1984, Aston worked as a Director at the Ministry of Agriculture. Aston final job in Jamaica before migrating to the USA was as a Management consultant at the Caribbean applied Technology Center from 1984 to 1988. Aston worked at the Florida Department of Children and families for 15 years before retiring in 2003.

On September 4th, 1965, Aston got married to Marjorie Eileen Manley at the Kingston College Chapel in Kingston Jamaica and was married for 57 years.

Aston is survived by his wife, Marjorie and their two children, Howard and Andrew, his grandchildren, Christopher, Nicholas and Brandon, his brothers, Weston and Carl and sisters Linette and Millie.

Aston worshiped at the St Marks Evangelist Episcopal Church since 1988 till present.

Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.forestlawnsouth.com for the McBean family.

Tribute to Aston B. McBean 3/17/2023

By Carl McBean

Almighty God giver of great gifts and father of all mercies, we pray that you will deal graciously with those of us who mourn that by casting our cares on you, we may come to know the consolation of your love.

Good morning and welcome to the celebration of life for my big brother Aston Bradford McBean son of the late Joel Tynday and Mabel Adina McBean of Carawina district, Petersfield, Westmoreland Jamaica, WI.

Aston was their 6th birth. I came 20 years later as their 16th child. I am mostly remembered as the wash belly or more affectionately as the mistake boy who dared to arrive 4 years after my mom thought that Millie was going to be their last child.

Our father was 62 years of age and Mammie was 47 ….still a miracle in today’s medical standards let alone in 1943.

This day embraces the common prelude to a Bra Nancy story prompting the thought of mythological creatures of long ago and far away………. Many of us seniors here today will recall with frightening anticipation the premise of “Once upon a time.” 99 years, 3 months and 14 days certainly provokes the MYTH of rolling calves and catcher cars.

It is my distinct honor and a privilege to attempt to bid farewell to Aston on behalf of our family. He was our own self-made giant.

To my knowledge, this journey began in 1902 when our father Joel Tyndal at 21 years of age joined many other Caribbean young men in the Isthmus of Panama to assist in the building of the Canal. Over a seven-year period, he made 3 elongated visits to Colon and Boca Del Toro where he discovered himself.

Upon his final return to Jamaica in 1908, he was armed with the skills of a tradesman somewhat mimicking todays trained handyman. He never saw the doors of a high school but believed firmly in education.

For the next several years, he would employ those trained skills into his personal entrepreneurial endeavors as well as when he worked with the Westmoreland Parish Council’s Roads and works as a foreman.

In 1911 he married our mother Mabel and immediately started to build a family with the mantra that education was pure gold. If you asked him for a shirt, he would hand you a book. To the contrary if you asked my Mom for a book she would hand you a shirt or a dress or mop your brow to promote a positive image. I would consider that to be nothing other than a balanced union. We have all become a composite of both parents…some more of one over the other.

Our family operates on an unwritten code of leadership and responsibility by seniority and not by intellect. Luckily for the last four Weston Linette, Millie and me, Aston’s leadership role was summoned not as a tradesman but as an aspiring educator and intellect.

Aston was a man of substance, conviction, and purpose. It can be done; it will be done; it must be done; ………the stars do not have to be aligned. He would be most comfortable if he were to walk into a room and an orderly pronounce “ALL RISE!”

He was a son, a husband, a brother, an uncle, a cousin, a father, a grandfather, and a loyal friend to those few who achieved his attention.

In 1947 he received his diploma in Education from MICO Training college in Education & teaching methods as well as school administration. Other courses included psychology, Economics, Geography, Mathematics, English and general sciences.

After a brief under study program with his older brother Clement in Burnt Savanna Saint Elizabeth, he accepted a headmaster’s position on a remote hilltop in Westmoreland known as Kentucky approximately three miles from Bluefields.

Shortly after he settled into this new role, he invited his 13-year-old brother Weston and his 11 year-old sister Linette to move in with him and to attend his school.

Just imagine that our parents would have had the temerity and the trust to give up their parenting responsibilities into the hands of their 25 year-old son in the name of improved and preferred education….. At that time, we would not dare refer to him as ASTON but most enforceable as Brother Aston.

Brother Aston would prepare Linette and Weston for higher education and when it was my turn at age 10, I too was banished to his care when he became principal at the Bickersteth elementary school in Saint James in 1953.

I can assure you that his efforts to convert a C minus potential into a C plus student was mutually challenging and sometimes embarrassing for both of us. One memorable example was my first year in his school in Math class while we were reciting the 4 times table. 4 ones 4; 4 twos 8; 4 threes 12; 4 four 16; 4 fives 20 ; 4 sixes CARL. I froze, I had no answer for him. He would leave his perch and come down to whisper in my ears.

Carl were you really in the 5th class before coming here ?..….go outside now and pick up some stones; then make 4 groups of 6 stones and then see how many stones there are…….That will be your answer……that experience was never ever to be forgotten. A total embarrassment in front of the entire class of my peers. The teacher’s privileged brother got smacked down.

It is now 3 pm and we are in his singing class. Teacher McBean begins with a Mario Lanza type bellow…Bless this House oh Lord we pray…make it safe by night and daaay and somewhere in the back of the class his brother Carl is not participating………out comes the command SING!

I had no reason to learn that song anytime before even though all the words were a permanent fixture on the wall in our family’s dining room. The lifetime lesson was to be prepared even if you are the principal’s brother.

I am sure Weston and Linette have their own stories of him jumping on his horse on a Friday evening to go into the town square to socialize OR they may recall that on MOVE Day the rented pickup truck in its effort to negotiate the Kentucky mountain path capsized and dispersed into the gully all their provisions of food, to include home grown rice, Breadfruit, Badoo, Dashine and corn all prepared by our parents.

Brother Aston left the teaching profession in 1955 and I went off to boarding school at Cornwall College high school. Brother Aston then took employment in the private sector for the next three years.

In 1958 at age 35, Brother Aston enrolled as a freshman at Cornell University in Ithaca NY. He graduated early in 1961 with a B.Sc. in Agricultural Economics. From Cornell he went on to the university of Toronto where he matriculated with a Master of Science in Economics and Agricultural Extension in 1963.

I have vivid recollections reading his newsy letters to my parents outlining his progress. His letters were always clearly written and specific. “I will graduate in June from Cornel then I will attend the University of Toronto to complete my Masters ; I will graduate in June of 1963 and I will be home in July of 1963…..all fulfilled as specified.

Personally, like my parents, with pride and anticipation, I counted every day going forward until he returned home. Throughout his life, Brother Aston was always precise and calculating even in marriage.

The highlight of his Canadian experience was when he met one Marjorie Manley through the good graces of a friend Yvonne Douglas who was having a party and asked Aston to pick up Marjory on his way. I think he fell for that trick.

Brother Aston returned to Jamaica at age 40 and for a few months pretended to play the field like the fabled Venetian Giacomo Casanova. By no means did Aston fit the scam artist label but convinced Marjorie to terminate her employment in Canada and to return to Jamaica for a new life with him.

By now, I am sure that he had taken out his slide rule and measured all the pros and cons and concluded that Marjorie would have met all the required attributes as a lifetime partner.

Marjorie complied with his wishes without knowing about all of the obstacles that awaited her.

Many of you here today would know that entering our family required a certain amount of scrutiny and confrontive heckling from all the siblings as well as the experienced brain washed in-laws.

Furthermore, marrying Aston or any one of my brothers meant marrying an army of McBean men and three overly protective sisters.

Our father was blind at that time and so approval was not based only on your resume and family background but included a laying on of hands and a confirmation of “Good hair.”

Marjorie sank that put. She had long black beautiful hair, an infectious smile, and a seductive personality that highjacked all our hearts for all the years that followed until this day.

Aston purchased a home in upscale Drum Blair in Kingston and took Marjorie there for a tour. At this home he said to her “this is where you will live.”

They were married on September 4th 1965 in the Kingston College Chapel.

Professionally, Brother Aston served in a variety of public service operations to Jamaica’s Ministry of Agriculture –

-as a management consultant at Caribbean Applied Technology Center and

-as the Director of procurement services at the Jamaican Industrial Development Corporation.

Concurrent with the above- mentioned activities he was a lecturer in Marketing and statistical methods at the College of Arts, Science and Technology.

When it was time for his children to study abroad, both parents migrated to the US seemingly to be here until the children completed their undergraduate work.

In the meantime, Aston took a position with Broward County’s Children and Family where he worked for 15 years until retirement.

My brother Aston enjoyed an extremely productive and contributory professional and personal life.

He was fortunate to marry a woman who did everything for him. When she would complain, I would respond by saying “a FI yu fault.” Marjorie would gracefully continue to deliver her gifts of love and attention.

It was most comforting to me to have heard with mine own ears Aston Bradford “BRAVADO” McBean confess publicly how much he loved Marjorie; how thankful he was for her goodness and how much he believed she had contributed to his longevity.

On his dying bed as I sat beside him, he spoke glowingly of his children and grandchildren. That tells me that his life was fulfilled and that all his hard work was fully paid up.

For those of us whose lives he has touched, let me assure you that we are eternally grateful for his contributions to our progress. His memory and his legacy will live on in our hearts.

We thank Marjorie for making good use of his best assets and by so doing did not suppress his love and admiration for us his extended family.

Our family wishes to thank all of you here and in zoom land for all your expressions of condolences and support to our family in these difficult times.

We are also extremely appreciative to Saint Marks Church for all the services and goodwill that my family has received here in this sanctuary over the years as well as today’s wonderful celebration.

Brother Aston will rest in peace.