Saturday services set for Alston B. Meade Sr., 87, honorary consul to Jamaica

A memorial service will be held Saturday, July 8, for Alston B. Meade Sr., 87, a research chemist and Pennsylvania's honorary consul to Jamaica, who died Wednesday, June 7, of heart failure at his home in Detroit.

Dr. Meade lived in West Chester from 1963 until moving to Detroit in 2013 to join family, said his daughter, Allison Meade Wellons.

From September 2002 to December 2011, he served as a liaison between the Jamaican government and agencies and officials in Philadelphia and Harrisburg. In that role, he assisted with visas, promoted trade between his native country and local business groups, and maintained communication between the island nation and its people here.

Audrey Marks, Jamaican ambassador to the United States, told the Jamaica Observer on Monday, June 12, that with the death of Dr. Meade, Jamaica had lost "an outstanding son."

"He spearheaded numerous trade missions to Jamaica and played an important role in lifting the relationship between the island and Philadelphia to new levels through the Jamaican Trade Council of Greater Philadelphia. He also represented his country on several state and local boards in Philadelphia, assisting the Jamaican community with immigration matters," she was quoted as saying.

When Dr. Meade announced that he would be stepping down as consul at the end of 2011, Marks issued an online statement saying: "The government and people of Jamaica are indebted to you, Dr. Meade, for the outstanding role you have played and for your exemplary service."

In 2005, Mayor John Street appointed Dr. Meade to the newly formed Commission on African and Caribbean Immigrant Affairs. He chaired the commission's legal committee, which handled immigration matters.

Dr. Meade was a past president of the National Association of Jamaican and Supportive Organizations, a cofounder and leader of the National Coalition on Caribbean Affairs, and a cofounder and vice president of the African and Caribbean Business Council. He also led the Jamaica Progressive League, a community organization with branches throughout the U.S. During the 103^rd Congress in 1993, Dr. Meade was honored by then-Rep. Lucien Blackwell for leadership of the league, which, as Blackwell read into the Congressional Record, "greatly benefited the entire city of Philadelphia."

Born and reared in Linstead, Jamaica, Dr. Meade completed high school there. He immigrated to the United States in the mid-1950s to pursue higher education, graduating from Fisk University in Nashville with a bachelor's degree in zoology and from the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, with a doctoral degree in entomology.

In 1963, Dr. Meade joined the DuPont Co., in Wilmington, and over the next 28 years, did research and development involving insecticides and other chemicals for agriculture. Although he retired in 1991, he continued serving the chemical giant as a consultant.

In addition to his efforts on behalf of the Jamaican community, he displayed a lifetime passion for public service and social activism, with a special interest in civil rights and education.

In the field of education, Dr. Meade served two terms in the 1970s as a member of the West Chester Area School District's board of education. He was president of the Joint Committee on Special Education comprising Chester County's 12 school districts.

In the area of civil rights, Dr. Meade was a past president of the Southern Chester County NAACP and a consultant to the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission on matters involving education.

At DuPont, he was a cofounder and a president of the Black DuPont Employees Association, which advocated for minority workers. Over two decades ending in the mid-1990s, the association collaborated with the University of Delaware in staging annual career conferences for middle and high school students.

In his role as a scientist, Dr. Meade organized a 1992 conference in cooperation with the International Society of African Scientists, the World Bank, and the United Nations Environmental Program. The gathering considered the problem of waste management in developing countries.

Dr. Meade married Phyllis J. Meade in 1956, and the couple reared five children in West Chester. They divorced in 1975. She died in 2012. In 2005, he married Vernette Byron-Meade.

Dr. Alston's daughter remembered her childhood with her father as "very fun."

"There were amusement parks, making ice cream from scratch, a ping-pong table, camping trips," Wellons said. Despite his high-profile public persona, "he was just Dad to me."

Besides his wife and daughter, he is survived by sons Alston B. Meade Jr., Brandon D. Meade, and Frederick A. Meade; a daughter, Jule M. Williams; three grandchildren; a sister; and a niece. A sister, brother, and granddaughter died earlier.

A memorial service planned by Philadelphia's Jamaican community will be at 11 a.m. Saturday, July 8, at the True United Church, 6201 Old York Rd., Philadelphia. Interment was earlier.