Retired businessman Aaron J. Matalon died on Saturday in Miami, Florida, after a short illness. He was 89.

Matalon had served as a business executive and chairman of a number of institutions in Jamaica, including president of the Jamaica Manufacturers' Association from 1953-1957 and again from 1960-1965.

He was also president of the Caribbean Association of Industry and Commerce, 1972-1974; co-founder and director of the West Indies Home Contractors Ltd, and chairman of Things Jamaica Ltd, where he served from 1964-1973.

Matalon leaves behind Marjorie, his wife of 64 years, children Joseph Arthur Matalon, Barbara Henriquez and Janet Carvalho, son-in-law Ricardo Henriquez, daughter-in-law Bernadette Matalon, grandchildren and great-children.

A Jewish thanksgiving service will be held in Miami today.

JCF members sign off with passing grades

Twenty-four members of the Island Traffic Authority and the Jamaica Constabulary Force were last week presented with certificates of participation and transcripts to signal their successful completion of a monthlong introductory course in Jamaican Sign Language and Deaf Culture.

The training, which was facilitated by the Jamaica Association of the Deaf (JAD), aimed to sufficiently equip the members with the requisite skills to communicate with deaf drivers, who will soon be joining the motoring public on the island's roadways.

Executive officer of JAD, Iris Soutar, praised the performance of the trainees, pointing out that they showed a "paradigm shift in their perception of deaf culture and their attitudes toward the deaf".

At the start of the training, she noted that only four of the 25 participants scored over 80 per cent in the pre-assessment exercise, which tested the participants' opinion of deaf people and their abilities. However, at the end of the programme, all 24 remaining participants scored over 80 per cent, Soutar informed.

Man found hanging, house set on fire

The body of a 41-year-old bus driver was found at his home in Park Mountain district, St Elizabeth, yesterday morning after his house was set ablaze.

The Santa Cruz police suspect that the man, who has been identified as Peter Knangle, might have committed suicide a short while after he called his daughters, asking them to visit him for the last time.

Reports are that about 9:30 a.m., Knangle called his eight-year-old twin daughters and asked them to visit him.

About 10 a.m., residents saw fire coming from his house and raised an alarm. The fire brigade and the police were called. One unit from the Santa Cruz Fire Department extinguished the blaze.

Investigators then searched the house and found Knangle's body on his bedroom floor with a rope tied around his neck. The rope was seen dangling from a beam in the ceiling.

Investigators believe Knangle lit the house then hanged himself.