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13.08.2017 Diaspora (USA)

Sherman And Wife Joyce Donate To JFK : Who Is Varney Sherman?

By Globe Afrique Magazine
Senator Counselor Varney ShermanSenator (Counselor) Varney Sherman
13.08.2017 LISTEN

Senator Sherman, his wife Joyce, with doctors and nurses at the JFK Medical Center in Monrovia

Commentary (Profile)- The late U.S. president Abraham Lincoln once said, “The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.” Expanding on Lincoln’s words, it is perhaps accurate to say a person that is considered to have a good character exhibits attributes such as empathy, integrity, honesty, courage, loyalty, fortitude, and other important virtues that promote good behavior and habits, even in the midst of shadowed efforts and deceptive attempts to smear him or her.

Harry Varney Gboto-Nambi Sherman is not just a real leader, caring father, good husband and honorable citizen, he is also perhaps the most recognizable, respected, polished, dignified, accomplished and best known Liberian corporate lawyer. He is a Liberian politician of a different character; compassionate and compromising, strong but tender-hearted; determined, strict forward but forgiven, and above all, he is a unifier and consensus builder.

Known nationwide in Liberia and throughout Africa as Counselor Varney Sherman, the founder of Sherman and Sherman Inc., Liberia’s best known and internationally acceptable law firm, is a life-long humanitarian. He has done more good works than most people in Liberia, and he has done so for more than three decades as a private citizen. Through his Sherman and Sherman law practice, some of the recognizable Liberian lawyers (including most of the senior prosecutors and judges) in the country today gained their footing in the legal practice.

In politics, beginning in 1985 when he joined the Liberian Action Party that supported the late Jackson F. Doe from Nimba County, Sherman has always put the aspirations of others before his. In 1987, he did likewise by supporting former Land and Mines minister Cletus Wotorson for president. In 2003, he championed the leadership of Gyude Bryant (former interim president of Liberia) from Maryland County. And in 2011, he invested and led the movement that re-elected Madam Ellen Johnson Sirleaf for a second term as president of Liberia.

What makes Sherman unique is not only the fact that he wishes no harm and harbors no ill feelings for anyone (even those who hate him and seek to destroy his good reputation), he recognizes the goodness, good deeds and dedication of others no matter their social status, age, race or tribe, gender or lifestyle. This embodiment is character–– good character and decency. This is what drives the man known simply as “Cllr. Sherman,” the senator representing the culturally dynamic people of Grand Cape Mount County in the Liberian senate.

Few months ago, the senator fell seriously ill during a major ceremony at the Capitol Building, home of the Liberian senate. With the help of colleagues and the fortunate present of some Liberian medical professionals, he was rushed to the largest, best known and largest medical institution in the country, the John F. Kennedy Medical Center in Monrovia, for an emergency treatment before being flown abroad for further medical care.

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Mrs. Joyce Sherman, wife of Senator Varney Sherman

In the middle of his unconsciousness, illness and the tumble, hustles and rush, Senator Sherman recognized that there were people (caring nurses and good doctors) and an institution taking care of him. He understood the compassion and desire of those people to help him survive in the midst of chaos, deficiencies and wants––especially when the hospital and maybe the entire country lack a simple good CT scan machine, except for the only one in Nimba County.

In demonstration of his character as an observant and a man of generosity and vision, Senator Sherman has initiated a campaign to purchase a CT scan for Liberia’s largest medical institution known as the JFK Medical Center upon his return from the United States where he underwent advanced medical care.

Senator Sherman and his wife, Joyce Sherman, a seasoned health care administrator and retired senior nurse practitioner in the United States, paid what they referred to as an “appreciation visit” to the administration of the John F. Kennedy Medical Center on Tuesday, August 9, 2017. There, the couple launched a project to purchase a CT scan machine for the hospital.

Cllr. Sherman immediately made an initial donation of US$5,000 on behalf of his family, while his reputable law firm, Sherman and Sherman, Inc., also contributed an additional US$5,000, equaling to US$10,000.

On behalf of his wife and family, Senator Sherman said his visit was to “thank the hospital for the quality of care and services they provided him when he was taken there for treatment” after an illness-driven fall at the Capitol Building in May 2017. The senator said he is alive today “because of JFK medical advice that he should go to the Jackson F. Doe Hospital in Tappita, Nimba County for a CT scan, which he did,” saying, “it cost over US$2,000 for a chartered flight to get to Tappita” where the only CT scan in the country is located.

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Registered nurses at the JFK’s Medical Center in Monrovia

The senator said after his treatment in the US, when he expressed his gratitude to the physicians who treated him for the excellent care he received, the US physicians informed him that “it was because of the physicians who first took care of him where he came from,” implying the physicians at the JFK Medical Center in Monrovia, Liberia.

“I am here today to launch a project to purchase a CT scan for the JFK. I am going to lobby with my business associates and colleagues to bring the machine here, because it concerns me since I returned to the country,” Sherman assured the JFK’s administration.

“I am going through my recovery process, but the surgery was successful and I am not incapacitated, I can walk, talk like what I used to do before, and can remember everything that comes my way,” he said.

The senator’s action is not surprising but perhaps refreshing for people who do not know the man who has done so much good deeds but has, over the years, elected to do many good things quietly and privately. This is why it is important that Liberians get to fully know the man Varney Sherman.

Varney Sherman was born on February 16, 1953, in Robertsport, Grand Cape Mount County. He attended and graduated from St. John’s Episcopal High School in 1971, and continued his education at Episcopalian Cuttington University where he earned a bachelor’s degree in 1975 before enrolling Louis Arthur Grimes School of Law at the University of Liberia in Monrovia in where he was awarded a Bachelor of Laws in 1979. He matriculated and completed his graduate education at Harvard Law School where he was awarded Master of Law in 1982.

In 2003, Cuttington University in Liberia conferred on him the honorary Doctors of Laws (LLD) degree in recognition of his philanthropy initiatives, especially his personal financial and material support for higher education throughout Liberia.

In 1980, Sherman joined the law firm of Maxwell & Maxwell as an associate, serving both as a consulting attorney and a trial lawyer, a period considered tumultuous in the country following 1980 military coup d’état.

Even though Sherman was a recent Harvard Law School’s graduate, he was delegated to manage the legal affairs of the firm’s global corporate clients, including major banks (Citibank, Chase Manhattan Bank, Tradevco Bank, BCCI), engineering and construction companies (Vianini Construction Company, Leminkainen OY, Societa Lavori Porto Della Torre Buccimazza Industrial Works); petroleum products distributing companies (Mobil Oil Liberia Inc., BP West Africa (Liberia) Ltd., AGIP Liberia Limited); import/export and general merchandising (Wazni Trading Corporation, CFAO Liberia Limited) and agriculture and forestry companies (Firestone Plantations Company, Cestos Nimba Corporation). He did this with excellence and won a name for himself.

In addition to law practice, Counselor (Senator) Sherman is or has been a professor at the Louis Arthur Grimes Law School at the University of Liberia where, without compensation and as a personal contribution to his alma mater, he teaches/taught corporation law and taxation law. For many years he served as a permanent member of the Board of Examiners to examine attorneys-at-law who applied to become counselors-at-law to practice before the Supreme Court of Liberia.

He served as President of the National Bar Association from 1993 – 1996. Over the years, he has also served on various Liberian Government commissions such as the Economic and Financial Reform Commission (1989 – 1990); the Tax Reform Commission (1999 – 2000); the Telecommunications Reform Commission (2002); and the Law Reform Commission (2006); He is the Honorary Counsel for the Islamic Republic of Pakistan in Liberia.

Counselor Sherman has served on the boards of the following universities in Liberia: Cuttington University, AME Zion University, Stella Maria Polytechnic University and several non-governmental charitable organizations.

While Sherman is not a typical politician, he comes across as a unifier, honest broker, and a man with integrity and common sense. By 1997, in the aftermath of the First Liberian Civil War, Sherman started to speak conspicuously on political matters with honesty, fairness and respect for the views of others.

He acquired an eye-grabbing newspapers’ coverage for a heartfelt speech he gave to the Liberian Business Association, denouncing the Liberian government for what he saw as the non-enforcement of a hiring policy meant to favor Liberian citizens and businesses.

In 2005, he ran as the standard bearer of a four-party Coalition for the Transformation of Liberia (COTOL) in the 11 October’s presidential election before eventually dropping out and endorsed George Weah of the Congress for Democratic Change for the run-off election.

After the merger of his Liberia Action Party into the Unity Party in 2009, Sherman was chosen to become the national chairman of the party and eventually led the coalition to victory in the re-election efforts of President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.

Senator Sherman is a man of character, and the character of those in leadership roles is important. Most of us recognize this and require it in the leaders that we look to or work for. Instead of giving in to egotistical desires, or acts simply to find shortcuts to solutions through selfish acts, Senator Sherman, best known as Cllr. Sherman, has demonstrated a character that is a minefield. It is almost indescribable. His character gives him empathy.

The launching of an effort to purchase a CT scan for the largest and most populous medical center in Liberia is an example of the character of Senator Varney Sherman simply known as Counselor Sherman. Liberians should be thankful to Senator and Mrs. Sherman. The CT scan will save the lives of many when it is purchased and installed at the JFK Medical Center.

For this and the many good things Senator Sherman has done for Grand Cape Mount County and the Republic of Liberia, Liberians should salute him. Above all, Grand Cape Mount County Stands by and with their senator.

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