Former minister of education Deryck Milton Bernard, 57, died at the Medical Arts Centre yesterday after a massive heart attack.
He was the husband of Myrna Bernard of the Caricom Secretariat and father of Denyse and Ayanna of the USA. His cousin Alex Graham told Stabroek News that Bernard, who at the time of his demise was in his second year at the Hugh Wooding Law School in Trinidad and Tobago having completed the law degree programme at the University of Guyana (UG) law school, was in the country to attend his mother’s funeral last week. He reportedly stayed in Guyana to ride out the Carnival festivities in T&T.
An academic, politician, preacher, musician and author, who obtained his Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Philosophy at Leicester University, UK, he lectured at UG for some 30 years where he was a senior lecturer, head of the Department of Geography and Dean of the Faculty of Arts.
During this time he also authored several articles and journals, and books, including a New Geography of Guyana, Geomorphology of Guyana and a Junior Atlas of Guyana. He also wrote ‘Going home and other tales from Guyana’.
Bernard was the first Dean of the School of Education and Humanity and was the driving force behind the establishment of the School of Earth and Environmental Studies at UG. Deputy Registrar Vincent Alexander told Stabroek News that Bernard was a mentor to the staff, many of whom were his students and who still looked to him for leadership and guidance.
Alexander said that on learning of Bernard’s death at UG, the staff and students, especially those in the School of Earth and Environmental Studies were deeply affected with many bursting into tears.
As a politician, he served as a permanent secretary to the late PNCR leader and president Desmond Hoyte and was a minister of education in his cabinet until 1992 when the PNCR lost the elections. He was elected back to the Central Executive Committee of the PNCR at the party’s last controversial elections.
PNCR Leader Robert Corbin said that Bernard’s death was “a tremendous loss to the party. “He has been just steadfast in season and out of season and he never allowed anything to come between his commitment to the party as well as his service to Guyana,” he said.
He said the party will be discussing with the family details for the funeral arrangements.
The Government of Guyana yesterday afternoon expressed condolences to Bernard’s family, relatives and friends. A statement said that President Bharrat Jagdeo and his Cabinet join in “mourning the passing of Mr Bernard who has contributed significantly to the national development of Guyana”.
A statement from the University of Guyana yesterday expressed “profound sadness and shock” at Bernard’s passing and extended condolences to his family.
Describing him as a colleague and friend, PNCR General Secretary Oscar Clarke said that he could only express deep shock and anguish at the news of his death while offering the PNCR’s sympathies to his wife, children and other relatives. Though he was based in T&T over the past year, Clarke said that he was in regular contact with the party and served as an advisor. Alexander said that at the level of the PNCR Bernard “was a voice of reason. He could never be identified with any faction but commented on matters based on merit. His politics was issue-based.” Extending condolences to the family, friends and to the PNCR on Bernard’s passing, Speaker of the National Assembly Ralph Ramkarran said that he was “thoroughly shocked” on learning the news. He said that Bernard was a person of great ability and very much liked in the National Assembly when he was an MP in the last parliament.
“His contribution was very substantial and it was a sad day when he decided not to return to parliament to offer his great skill and learning,” he said, adding that “he was a very humble and warm person and a very good friend of mine. I am deeply saddened by his passing.”
Former permanent secretary in the Ministry of Education, Noel Adonis, who served under Bernard said that the deceased understood the education sector and had a vision of what the education system required in terms of what would be relevant to the Guyanese experience.
He said it was under Bernard’s tenure in office that the National Centre for Educational Resource Development (NCERD) was established and the Inter-American Development Bank-funded Primary Education Improvement Project (PEIP) was conceived. In addition to the construction and rehabilitation of schools, he said that the programme also focused on the writing and publication of text books.
As a musician, singer, composer and arranger, and a member of the Woodside Choir, he was leader of the folk section of the Korokwa group and the deputy conductor of the Woodside. His colleague Marilyn Dewar recalled that only last week they sat together along with her husband David to arrange the music for his mother’s funeral. Now the fraternity, she said, was “in a state of confusion at the announcement of his death.” Both groups sang at his mother’s funeral, where he was said to have sung beautifully, ‘There is a Balm in Gilead.’
Dewar said that though he was a politician, he was also a very religious person who preached at the Kingston Methodist Church where he worshipped. He was also the conductor of the Joint Methodist Choir. (Miranda La Rose)
