Professor Carpenter has chaired and been a member of numerous committees and associations both within and outside of the University. These include Chairman of the Medical Committee of the UHWI and member of the Board of Management. He has been Chairman of the Specialty Board in Surgery, Member of the Editorial Board of the WIMJ, and has served as a member of the Editorial Board of the British Journal of Surgery. He has also acted as Dean of the Faculty on several occasions. Professor Carpenter is a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, a Surgical Fellow of the American Academy of Paediatrics, a Member of the British Association of Paediatric Surgeons, the first Overseas Member of the American Paediatric Surgical Association, a member of the Paediatric Association of Jamaica, and an active member of the Society International de Chirugia. He was awarded the Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh for the part he played in the success of that College’s 2nd Overseas Meeting in Jamaica in 1979. He served as President of the Association of Surgeons in Jamaica from 1978 – 1981.

On retiring from the UWI and clinical practice in 1989 he was granted the title of , Professor Emeritus and has remained with the Department of Surgery as Research Coordinator. In this role he has not only assisted with guidance and editorial support, but has also helped residents in the preparation of their casebooks. In addition, he has been of invaluable assistance in the computerization of the Department. He has examined the curriculum vitae of nearly all members of the Department, upgraded them and, in so doing, identified areas of research which he has helped bring to presentation or publication. He has been the driving force behind the annual Departmental Research Evenings which afford an opportunity particularly for the younger members of academic and residency staff to present their research.

Mr President it is in recognition of his Outstanding Contribution to the Health Services and the Advancement of Surgery in Jamaica and the wider Caribbean that the council of the Caribbean College of Surgeons has admitted Reginald A. Carpenter to be an Honorary Fellow of College and I ask you to do so in absentia.