Former education minister Deryck Bernard was laid to rest yesterday following an outpouring of tributes and a service, which celebrated his life and reflected his personality.
Bernard, 57, passed away at the Medical Arts Centre last Tuesday following a massive heart attack. At the time of his demise, he was a second-year student at the Hugh Wooding Law School in Trinidad and Tobago. The opposition member of parliament had flown home to attend his mother’s funeral just a week before and may have stayed on here to ride out the Carnival festivities in T&T.
An academic, politician, preacher, musician and author, who obtained his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees 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, journals and books, including the New Geography of Guyana, Geomorphology of Guyana and a Junior Atlas of Guyana. He also wrote Going home and other tales from Guyana.
His achievements were much glorified but for Bernard’s daughters Denyse and Ayanna, he was “the best daddy in the world”.
In a simple shared tribute the Bernard sisters recounted the special moments they shared with their father, his warm sense of humour and the integral role he played in both their lives.
“Some say he was a teacher, a musician, a statesman, but for us he was simply daddy,” the younger Ayanna recounted, supported by Denyse who said, “My daddy wws the best daddy in the whole world.”
Bernard’s wife Myrna sat quietly, nodding as the two young women made the touching tribute. They recounted too how their father played the guitar for them whenever there were blackouts.
Gerald Bernard, his brother read the Eulogy, recounting the different facets of his intellectual development. Attendees at the funeral, though sombre, chuckled when Gerald Bernard recalled how one of his brother’s teachers had informed their mother that his academic work had taken a backseat and he would be forced to take up a regular public service job or even operate a donkey cart.
During his days at Hugh Wooding, he said, his brother had become a mentor and source of advice for many students.
“He was looking forward to his career in law, but that was not to be… To his family he was stable and reliable and was surely a sounding board for ideas and a rock in times of strife,” he said.
In preparation for his mother’s funeral now two weeks ago, Deryck Bernard had sat with David and Marilyn Dewar, leaders of the Woodside Choir, to arrange the music for his mother’s funeral. Bernard was part of the Woodside Choir and the folk section of the group, Korokwa, that performed at his mother’s funeral.
The Dewars, who had spoken to Stabroek News upon learning of the death of their colleague had said he sung beautifully, “There is a Balm in Gilead”. This musical item was also performed at the service yesterday. Representatives from the Methodist Church, the PNCR, University of Guyana, Hugh Wooding Law School and other organisations to which he was either affiliated or a direct member, also made touching tributes.
His very own compositions, “Waterfall Song” and “Kingdom Song” were performed by Korokwa at the end of yesterday’s service along with the school song of his alma mater, Queen’s College.
