Neville James Bissember, former Deputy Prime Minister in the PNC government of the 1960s, has passed away.
He died at age 80 of respiratory complications at the St Joseph Mercy Hospital yesterday morning following a short illness.
Bissember, who was born in Corentyne, Berbice, grew up in Whim and attended the Berbice High School from where he moved on to study law in England.
He served in the health and housing and the information and trade ministries in the PNC government that came into office in December 1964. He also served as Leader of the House.
In the early 1960s Bissember had attended two of the three constitutional conferences in London, and had been the PNC representative on the legal committee of the conference which had drafted Guyana’s independence constitution.
Bissember resigned from the government in 1970 after which he took up the position as chairman of the Guyana Telecommunications Corporation for two years. He then resumed his private law practice full-time. He pursued this until the mid-1990s when a mild stroke required him to reduce his professional activities. He retired completely in October 2004 following further illness.
Bissember leaves to mourn his wife Mary of fifty-four years; his children Elfrieda Bissember, Curator of the National Gallery, and Neville Bissember Jr; five grandchildren; siblings and other relatives.
