AHEAD of the 28th annual conference of the Caribbean Actuarial Association (CAA) at the Jamaica Pegasus hotel from November 29-30, All Woman sat down with its founding president and actuarial luminary, Daisy Coke, OJ, CD, who defied the expectations of her gender, making extraordinary contributions in a sector that was male-dominated for many decades.

Coke, nee McFarlane, the only daughter among seven boys for Bishop Allan James McFarlane, a farmer married to homemaker Murtella, said she always thought she would be an educator, but several mentors over time made suggestions at different stages eventually leading her to specialise in mathematics and a career as an actuary.

“I remember being one of three children from Spalding Primary who journeyed to May Pen in 1948 to sit our scholarship exams,” she said.

Successful in her exams, she left Clarendon for Portland to attend Happy Grove High School where she excelled in her studies, developing a love for mathematics and causing her teachers to take special note of her outstanding progress.

“My special teachers at the time, Stanlie and Fay Parkins, thought that having excelled in geography and Latin, I was not being challenged enough at Happy Grove, and suggested moving to Kingston to a larger sixth form where I would be in a more competitive environment,” she said.

As such, she enrolled at St Hugh’s High School where she was successful in her Cambridge Higher Schools exams and returned to Happy Grove as a junior teacher.

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/all-woman/daisy-coke-oj-caribbean-actuarial-pioneer_149144