RAW Founder Papa Pilgrim Passes
RAW Founder Papa Pilgrim
Passes
Salt Lake City, UT -
October 13, 2003 - - Papa Pilgrim, co-founder of Reggae Ambassadors Worldwide,
passed away on Sunday, October 5th, in Aberdeen, Scotland, while traveling with
his life partner, Wendi Watson. He suffered a massive stroke due to a
blood clot in the brain on October 2, and passed away in the hospital in
Aberdeen.
Based in Salt Lake
City, Utah, Pilgrim was born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He traveled
extensively throughout the Far East, courtesy of a 20 year association with the
American military establishment, and he had an even longer affiliation with the
State of Utah as a clinical social worker. Still employed by the State of Utah
in January 2003, he investigated elder
abuse.
Pilgrim's interest in
Reggae music began shortly after he moved into the neighborhood of "a
long-haired hippie." Attracted by the heartbeat of "that weird music," he
soon found himself singing along to the sounds of 10CC's "Dreadlock Holiday."
Shortly thereafter, Pilgrim purchased his first album, Peter Tosh's Legalize It.
Thus began a heartfelt linkage to - and a lifetime love for - the musical art
form of Reggae music, which he said he knew was "divinely
inspired."
Pilgrim's writing
about Reggae music began even more serendipitously. A chance remark to The
Beat's publisher that he was on the way to Jamaica to attend Sunsplash '89 was
met with a request that he "cover" Sunsplash for the magazine. Since 1989,
articles and features by Pilgrim were published extensively in Reggae Report,
The Beat and CD Review and, to a lesser extent, in the Reggae
Festival
Guide, Jamaica Times, and
Reggae World (of Malta). His column, aptly named "Pilgrim's Perspective,"
featured the words and sounds of independent artists and appeared regularly in
Dub Missive Magazine. Pilgrim was always quick to tell people that he was not in
the "business" of Reggae music; he neither promoted concerts nor produced or
managed artists, and with very few exceptions, received
any
remuneration for writing about
Reggae music and its
makers.
From 1985 to 2000,
Pilgrim hosted "Nite Roots," a weekly Reggae radio show on KRCL (90.9 FM) in
Salt Lake City, featuring independent artists and labels. Pilgrim said, "Every
week on the radio, I say that, no matter how large one's Reggae collection might
be - nor how long one has been listening to Reggae music - I guarantee that you
will hear at least one song you've never heard before. And, more than likely,
the song will be by an artist you've never heard
before."
A man of faith and
culture, Pilgrim believed that Reggae music plays an instrumental part teaching
us to to save our planet and truly live together peacefully as one. That
knowledge provided Pilgrim with the impetus and motivation to organize Reggae
Ambassadors Worldwide (RAW) in December, 1992. Pilgrim retired from active
leadership of Reggae Ambassadors Worldwide in 1999, and limited writing about
Reggae music to an "as requested"
basis.
Pilgrim's interest in
travel never decreased. In 2002, he spent a month in Scotland and Ireland, and
took a month long, 10,000 mile Discover America tour ending
in
Newfoundland. His final trip trip
abroad, his fifth, had been planned as a month in the Scottish
Highlands.
According to his
wishes, Papa Pilgrim was cremated and his ashes will be spread in a private
place. He did not want a memorial service or
flowers.
Tom Pearson, RAW #33
and RAW's Executive Director, requests that "all of us in RAW re-confirm our
livication to Reggae music, the music Papa Pilgrim found so inspiring. I think
the greatest memorial we could create would be to make Reggae Ambassadors
Worldwide a living testament to the vision of this humble
giant."
Reggae music was the
background music of Papa Pilgrim's life. In January, he was quoted as saying, "I
cannot imagine a day without the 'one drop' in my
head."
Papa Pilgrim goes
forward, before, now and always, trodding in Jah's Holy
Light.
# # # #
#
Nan Lewis, RAW
#72
RAW Board of
Directors
Posted: Sat
- November 8, 2003 at 08:51 PM