Alma Mock Yen was born on 15 November 1928 (UWI Mona Library). She died at home on New Year’s Eve 2025, aged 97, after a period of illness. The Press Association of Jamaica called her a distinguished broadcaster whose voice helped shape Jamaican broadcast journalism for decades.

She attended Wolmer’s Girls on a scholarship in the 1940s and left first in English literature (Gleaner, 31 December 2025). In a 2019 commentary she dated those school years 1941–1946. She started teaching English at Merl Grove High School at 14 after the Senior Cambridge exams, hired by principal Miriam Speid; many of her first pupils were older than she was. She taught there for ten years, headed the preparatory department, later taught at Excelsior, and completed teacher training at Mico.

Her journalism began in the early 1950s as a part-time Radio Jamaica host under the name Alma Hylton. She became a full-time employee, one of the first women of colour at RJR, and trained in radio at the BBC. With Ranny Williams she pioneered the Sunday radio drama Life With The Morgan-Henrys. She later joined UWI’s Radio Education Unit (1982), became its head in 1987, and spent 19 years producing informational programmes. She was a UNESCO consultant for radio broadcasting arts in the Commonwealth Caribbean.

The Gleaner of 1 January 2026 says she was among the first 32 students when CARIMAC opened in 1981, and then one of its first lecturers. Minister Grange’s statement the same week says she was in the “very first class of the Institute of Mass Communication established at UWI in 1975.” Both years are on the record. She served the PAJ as secretary for 17 years and was honoured as a PAJ Veteran Journalist in 2011. The Gleaner of 1 January 2026 prints the Order of Distinction in the rank of Commander.

Sources

Sources: Jamaica Gleaner, Jamaican media pioneer Alma Mock Yen dies at 97, 31 December 2025; Jamaica Gleaner, Alma Mock Yen mourned, 1 January 2026; Jamaica Gleaner, Phenomenal Women, 8 March 2007; UWI Mona Library, Mrs Alma Mock Yen, 50 Select.