Shridath Surendranath Ramphal (born 1928), a Guyanese barrister, politician, and international civil servant, was the secretary-general of the Commonwealth of Guyana. An architect of regional integration in the Caribbean, he helped to increase the role of Guyana in world affairs.

Shridath S. Ramphal--"Sonny," as he was widely known--was born on October 3, 1928, in New Amsterdam, British Guiana. His ancestors were Indians who arrived there in the 1880s. The eldest of five children, his father, James I. Ramphal, was a Presbyterian schoolteacher and a pioneer of secondary education in Guiana. He later became the first Guyanese to be appointed to a senior government post when he was made a commissioner in the Department of Labour soon after the outbreak of World War II.

Ramphal attended a private school founded by his father in the capital city, Georgetown. He was also educated at the Modern Educational Institute, which also was run...