A tribute to Rev Fr Damian Grimes

One of my favourite leadership quotes is,“A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way and shows the way”. This is how I would describe the late Rev Fr Damian Grimes, a leader who saw what was invisible to others and then showed it to them.

The year was 1990 and like any 13-year-old I had received my results for the Primary Leaving Exams and was ready to go to secondary school. Unfortunately, I did not have the points for my school of choice which at the time I believed would enable me to fulfil my childhood dream of following in my father’s footsteps to go to law school.

My father Alfred Nasaba consoled me and said he would take me to a school where most of the ladies in law school at his time went. The next day we got up early and, together with my elder sister Juliet Nambuba, dressed in our Sunday best and drove for what seemed like an eternity.

This would later become our home for the next six years. A year later, our young sister Jovia Nabukwasi Edokpayi joined us. She tells me the best years of her life were spent in Namasagali.

During those six years, there were days I wished I was elsewhere. I had what psychologist Carol Dweck calls a fixed mindset. My young and foolish mind believed that because I had not gone to my school of choice I had lost out on my dream. However, there were also days when I chose to be where my feet were and ,basked in the uniqueness of the school which would later turn out to be an asset for me in both my professional and, personal life.

As I join my fellow alumni of Namasagali College School to grieve the death of Fr Grimes, allow me to share a few observations that have come through for me as I honour the work and sacrifice he made for us his students to ensure that we had the tools to play and win the game of life.

The first observation is great leaders are visionary. They see more and more before. Fr Grimes was indeed one such leader; he was ahead of his time. He knew that it is not what is around you that affects you or makes you but what you allow to get inside you. Although the buildings of the school were honestly not very pleasant to the eye, we enjoyed going to class, swimming in the pool, and engaging in the athletics which were my favourite as I competed for Lions House.
My second observation is to always be where your feet are.

With hindsight, I see how God was ordering my steps by taking me to Namasagali and yet most of the time I missed the lessons I should have learnt because my mind was
not with my feet. Years later hen I had to leave my thriving career to become a trailing spouse and went through a self-discovery journey, which I write about in my book The Expatriate Wife: Did Relinquishing My Career Mean Losing My Identity? I discovered that I had been given a great chance which I mishandled.

Namasagali introduced me to the love of reading and poetry. The fact that part of our exams was reciting a poem before a teacher excited me. Today I enjoy expressing my creativity through writing. I also like the tradition we have with our son. He writes me a poem every Mother’s Day in a Francine River book of my choice. It is always a pleasure reading these poems.

My mentor John Maxwell has correctly observed that it is only evaluated experience that moves the needle in our actions. Talk to any Namasagali alumni and each of us has
lessons we walked away with from the Sunday conferences we had with Fr Grimes.

I have heard that at 93 Fr Grimes, who was very fond of his alumni and even request ed that he be laid to rest in Namasagali, held the hand of Maureen Mwagale, aka Mama
Alumni, and two hours later ascended into eternity.
As I reflect on this powerful act, I am tempted to argue that perhaps he felt confident that Mama Maureen and her team would carry on the work he did and encourage the rest of the alumni to do what our motto says and “Strive Regardless."

Wamambe is a transformational leadership coach with the Maxwell Certified Leadership Team [email protected]