WinstonTheGREAT Jamaica Lumsden

Dr. WinstonTheGREAT Jamaica Lumsden, D.V.M., M.Ed., M.P.H., Ed.S., died on December 23, 2020, at Courtland Manor Nursing Home, in Dover, Delaware. He was born Winston Ffrench Lumsden on May 29, 1932, in Kingston, Jamaica. He was the first son of Iris Bennett and George Lumsden. He was predeceased by his siblings Arnold, Icyline (May), Miriam and Roy. He attended The Jamaica School of Agriculture, in Jamaica, W.I. He later received his Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (D.V.M) from Tuskegee University, Tuskegee, Alabama. In 1974, he also received Master’s in Public Health (M.P.H.) from Harvard University, as well as a Master’s in Education (M.Ed.), and an Education Specialist Degree (Ed.S) WinstonTheGREAT was a Professor of Veterinary Medicine at Tuskegee University. He was an Instructor who taught Pure and Applied Basic Sciences. Throughout his life, he had a wide range of experiences like the following: Agricultural Extension and Research Officer, Computer Science, Programmer, System Analysis and Developer, Specific training in Gross Anatomy, Developed Excellence in Micro Anatomy, Developed Excellence in Physiology, and Pathology. WinstonTheGREAT was an exceptional educational motivator. His enthusiasm for knowledge was as vast as it was boundless, pushing family, friends and colleagues to strive and achieve their highest goals. WinstonTheGREAT worked in teaching and the computer fields until he was age 50, and decided to enter upon his life-long ambition. At the young age of 7, he said he remembered looking at a map of North America, and saying to himself “I’m going to walk up you one day.” He kept his dream to himself for years until he decided to begin his journey in 1982. His expedition was to walk up and down America. This was a year by year, stride by stride pilgrimage. Each of his strides had to be continuous, and every year he would begin where he stopped the year before. WinstonTheGREAT was known as “The GREAT Appalachian Super Athlete”. In 1986, he earned this title by walking the great Appalachian Trail (AT) and extension thereof, which included the entire eastern length of America (Key West, Florida USA to Cap Gaspe, Quebec, Canada). His travels included many lateral spurs out from the AT. He survived bear attacks and other perils during this journey. Some Native Americans living in Hot Springs on the Appalachian Trail in North Carolina confirmed the name TheGREAT on Winston after he saved six young Jewish male students from a black bear in the Smokey Mountains. He touched 15 states on the eastern seaboard, and settled in Delaware. He worked for Delaware State University, where he taught students from grades 4-8, in the Saturday Academy Program. Dr. Lumsden not only traveled through the deep wilderness pathways, where he would walk for days and never saw a human being, but he also traveled through the steel and concrete jungles where he came in contact with the hustle and bustle of everyday live. He appreciated the solitude of the wilderness best. On his way to Canada, he walked to visit and gave thanks to Harvard, one of his alma maters. Harvard is the only institution that supported him in this expedition. After he finished walking North America, WinstonTheGREAT decided to make a walking pilgrimage mission of Gratitude and Peace Awareness to witness, mourn, salute and honor persons. He paid respect and appreciation for deeds done by the fallen at sites, historic and geographic. His goal was to make sure our departed beloved honored heroes/heroines from World War II permanently resting on distant lands and seas were not denied the privilege of being remembered. At each destination, he sang loudly, and with deep feeling, songs of consolation. Most notable, “Amazing Grace” and “When the Saints go Marching In”. Before falling ill, one of his proposed book titles was “America: We are blessed, I know why!”, a compilation of his observations during his journeys. He said that when he first started this journey someone told him that for a black man to do something like this, “it was equivalent to an angel walking through hell with an ice cream cone”. WinstonTheGREAT walked through all of the free continental European countries, BelaRussia, Asia, Turkey, North Africa, Tunisia, Ireland, Malta-Georges-Cross, Sicily, Norway, Finland, the United Kingdom and many more. There were only two countries that he was unable to enter. While his walks would exhaust most young people, WinstonTheGREAT took them in stride. That was probably because overcoming obstacles had never been a problem for him. He has walked through most of Europe on his self-financed journey, thanking other countries for what they had given the United States. He would say:” Someone taking a plane to various countries to thank them for their contributions doesn’t have the same significance as a pilgrim walking on foot.” His appreciation for the help other countries had given America turned Dr. WinstonTheGREAT Jamaica Lumsden into a walking history book. In an age when many people would not even walk around their housing development, WinstonTheGREAT took five months out the year to walk around the world. Before taking off on each walking trip, he would learn the languages of the countries he planned to visit. He spent as much as six hours a day training for his expeditions. Whenever he reached oceans and seas, he would walk to airports and would fly or take ferries. He would smile and say: “I think I have a little bit more faith than St. Peter, but I did not try to walk on the North Atlantic Ocean nor will I do so when I reach the Pacific in a few years’ time.” When people would ask him how he coped with being alone in the wilderness, and how he overcame the dangers of wild animals and people, he would tell them that danger was always everywhere. When he had not seen a human for days, he had the company of alligators, bears, wild feline, as well as, rabbit, squirrels, chirping crickets, singing birds, croaking frogs, lightening bugs, beautiful butterflies, verdant trees, silvery lakes, rolling country sides, peasant meadows, rustling winds and rushing streams. In 1989, Dr. Lumsden was invited to hike the island of Ireland in a way that it has never been walked before. On June 1, 1990, he completed that commission now deemed the greatest super athletic feat ever undertaken and completed on the island in all of history. He literally walked through, around, over and under the island. When he felt he was in danger he got on his “never busy” direct phone line up to heaven, calling “collect” “Lord, please help me” which always brought him lifesaving results. Whenever people said to him that he cannot do something, he would reply “I have to, I’m WinstonTheGREAT, I can do anything.” One of his quotes was “God gave me a test. I did my best. Then, next he did the rest for our greatest success!” WinstonTheGREAT sometimes met with government officials on his trips, but normally he walked and talked with everyday citizens. Mostly, he spent his nights in the wilderness, camping out in woods, bus shelters, bridges, and even tunnels, sleeping on the portable mattress that he carried in his huge backpack. He also sheltered in weird chambers, cemeteries, through rains and sunshine, hot and freezing temperatures, rugged mountain ranges, sandy Mediterranean beaches, coasts of Europe’s large rivers, swamps of Florida, farmers’ barns, open tundra’s above the Arctic Circle, homes of people who took him in when they saw him walking, whom he called “angels”. His travels took him through Switzerland to Audrey Hepburn’s burial site near Lake Geneva, and to Princess Pocahontas’ grave in England. In May 2008, Dr. WinstonTheGREAT accomplished in his words “the greatest ultra-athletic feat ever undertaken in all of human history”. He successfully made it to earth’s most northern walk-able-to place beneath the Arctic Ocean reachable by human being on their own foot-strides which were physically contiguously connected with distant southern latitudes. This point is on North Cape Island, an extreme tundra of Norway in the eastern hemisphere, made contiguous with mainland Europe by a very, very deep and long motor-diesel smoke submarine tunnel, low beneath the bottom the Arctic Ocean. No land machine is able to reach here! WinstonTheGREAT traversed this tunnel on foot! ¡Ad Astra per Aspera! To the Stars through Bolts and Bars! Never to Stop until Over the Top! Through it all, WinstonTheGREAT put his trust in God, and walked by faith. He believed that Jesus was with him always. He loved to say “The will of God will never take you where the Grace of God will not protect you.” He will be remembered for his rich stories, his big laugh and smile, his generosity and convictions and his passion for a good meal!! WinstonTheGreat is survived by his daughter, Winsome Lumsden-Walker; grandchildren, Nadine and Omar; three great-grandsons; his adopted family, The Augustus’ – Eutrice and Synth Claire Augustus, their daughters, Tanisha and Janelle, their eight grandchildren, and their extended family. He is also survived by his brother, Rupert; several nieces and nephews and their children; cousins; and a host of relatives and friends.

WinstonTheGREAT Jamaica Lumsden

May 29, 1932 - December 23, 2020