Dear Editor,
Life’s meaning doesn’t come from “doing our own thing” without regard to the needs around us. Meaning is not something selfish people find very easily, nor in the end does it come from material things and the trappings of high office. Rather, the meaning of life ultimately is a gift from God to everyone. It cannot be bought not even by those who equate material acquisitions with power and nothing else.
Meaningful lives shape legacies, and it is through legacies that we are remembered. To be remembered well is an essential endorsement of our character. We call it reputation and it is priceless. Deryck Bernard will be remembered well. Reputations take a lifetime to build, and only seconds to destroy. They reflect our family roots and the extent of our commitment to key personal values that we hope will rub off in positive ways on others. Values such as honesty, morality, compassion, selflessness and truth. Deryck was endowed with all these values and qualities and they did rub off. He had a brilliant mind respected by those who have an eye for talent, class and modesty. One of the more civilized and urbane members of the PNCR Central Executive, when Deryck spoke it was always a pleasure to listen and learn. In that sense he reminded me very much of my own father.
Deryck was often charged with the responsibility for formulating party policy particularly in the run up to general elections. I was always flattered to be asked by him to join his small group of “thinkers” to give vision and scope to the party’s inchoate ideas. I enjoyed many policy meetings with Deryck, Sherwood Lowe and others often held at my house over breakfast.
To me Deryck was the policy man, though of course, his ability and achievements went far beyond the making, moulding and scripting of PNCR party policy. He held one cardinal rule about policies which I fully shared with him, “Don’t have too many. If they’re good they’ll be copied. If they’re bad they’ll be hostages to fortune.” Deryck Bernard’s contribution and value to the PNCR is unparalleled as well as incalculable.
Yours faithfully,
F Hamley Case
