Notes To Financial Statements - Jamaica National

The Batticks: A Special Familywith a Powerful JN BondCalvin Battick has a half-smile across his serene face when he quietly says, “Iam truly blessed.”The Batticks of Havendale, in Kingston, have a history which has paralleledand intersected with that of Jamaica National Building Society for threequartersof a century. Like the Society, Calvin emerged from rural Jamaica, inhis case from Clarendon, where his father was a successful farmer.He too came to Kingston and found success in the rapidly growing metropolis.Just at the time when the Westmoreland Building Society, the Jamaica Nationalforerunner, moved to bigger quarters at Hendon Circle in Savanna-La-Mar, hebegan contemplating a merger with a very exceptional lady.She was a trainee nurse at the Kingston Public Hospital in 1959, the yearJamaica’s building societies formed their first Association. He was 32 and hada good job, and most of his friends were already married.“I decided the time was right when I found the right person,” he revealed.Three years after meeting, they were married. The enterprising Merlyn got anursing job in the United States, and Calvin, a trained printer, followed heron a path so many have taken. Jamaica had gained its Independence, andfor the young couple, the world was their oyster.This was also a period of tremendous transformation for the building societymovement in Jamaica with the mergers of Manchester Mutual BuildingSociety, St. James Benefit Building Society, Brown’s Town Benefit andSt. Ann Benefit into Westmoreland Building Society. In December of 1970,this institution became the Jamaica National Building Society (JNBS).In 1972, Calvin and Merlyn chose to return to a Jamaica which was then onthe cusp of dramatic changes. He and Merlyn had decided that their youngsons - Shaun, Steve and Kirk - should have the privilege of a solid Jamaicanupbringing. “My friends thought I was crazy.” He had planned to start hisown business in Jamaica, but was offered a job at the newly establishedAcco Brands American/Jamaican joint venture company, ultimately stayingthere 28 years. “I enjoyed it.”Merlyn played a decisive role in their resettlement. “She had a driving forcefor any sort of business, even in getting a house.”They were living in rented accommodation in Havendale when Merlynset her mind on acquiring a new home. It was she who was instrumentalin securing financing for the family home that would become the centreof the universe for the Batticks. “We bought our home through JamaicaNational,” he recounted.In 1978, when they got the mortgage, the Jamaica Permanent Building Societyhad merged with the JNBS a year earlier. And the year before that, theSt. Thomas Mutual Building Society had also merged with the Society whichwas expanding rapidly across the island.In Havendale, where the Batticks finally settled permanently, the communitywas still relatively new, with cows wandering through open gates to graze onwhat had recently been pasture land. Mango trees were everywhere, havingbeen cultivated on the property before it was sub-divided.The boys went to the nearby Calabar High School and their spiritualpath required only short walk from home. “We were all members of theMeadowbrook United Church.”Merlyn had developed an attachment to Jamaica National, which wascemented when the manager of the JNBS New Kingston Branch, Eric HoSang,Photographs:(1) Wedding in 1962 (2) Calvin Battick(3) Merlyn with her Dodge Colt car in the early 1970s7