F G N Mendis was better known as Ricky. A genial man with a soft smile that I was privileged to meet in his elegant home in the presence of his beautiful wife Charmaine.
The saying goes that “humility is the hallmark of a gentleman”. The other is”a man is not known to be rich by what he has, but by what he gives”. By both measures, Ricky was defined.
He was introduced to me by a mutual friend and I made a cold call to see him with a view to gaining a donation for the building of an Accident & Emergency Trauma Hospital at the Teaching Hospital in Batticaloa, Sri Lanka. He warmed to our request and fulfilled the pledge thus becoming the largest individual donor for the project.
Ricky was a high profile Mercantile Executive in Colombo in the sixties and seventies. He was the Chief Executive of Lewis Browns and Chairman of Delmege Forsyth, both well known and highly respected Commercial Houses in Sri Lanka.
We invited him to be a Vice Patron of our Foundation in 2022. We are so glad he honoured us by accepting and miss him at the helm of our Foundation.
We take this opportunity to express our condolences and sympathise with Charmaine his wife and his family.
May Ricky rest in peace.