We confess up front to having being almost overwhelmed by the multiplicity of events engaging our attention during this past week.

Included among them has been a follow up on the last rites held in far away St Louis, Missouri, for Doris Cholmondoley Webster, a founding member of the Bermuda Industrial Union. She was aged 105 when she died at the home of her distinguished daughter Vivienne, the wife of Bermudian-born Bishop Vinton Anderson a former President of the Geneva-based World Council of Churches.

Closer to home we’ve been saddened taking note of the passing of the lady we referred to as ‘the Great Georgine’ Mary Hill. She passed away peacefully in hospital on Monday night after a short illness. Georgine was just six days short of her 96th birthday that was set for celebration today.

Last Saturday we were engrossed with companions in the exclusive ceremony of inducting The Company of Honorary Fellows of the Bermuda College with its two newest members, Dr David Saul and Dr Victor Scott.

College president Dr Duranda Green set the stage for what was truly an august occasion. This is the time, she declared, when Bermuda College pauses to celebrate the achievements of members of our community by bestowing upon them our highest honour, an Honorary Fellowship in to the Company of Honorary Fellows of Bermuda College.

The Company was established in 1980 and over the past 33 years, 83 outstanding individuals have been inducted, including former Premiers, politicians, educators, medical doctors, community activists and successful leaders in business and industry. Out of that number, 34 Fellows have been ‘called home to glory’, as Dr Green put it.

The induction ceremony and dinner was hosted by Dr Walwyn Hughes, who is chairman of the Honorary Fellows. Present were college staff, Jill Husband, chair of the Board of Governors, Fellows and their significant others.

Dr Green alluded to Dr Saul and Dr Scott as two outstanding Bermudians who had made a significant difference to their homeland and the world. Dr Saul joined the list of Fellows who are former Premiers, while Dr Scott joins his mother, the late Edna Mae Scott as a Fellows, becoming the second parent and child to be inducted to the Company, in the footsteps of Mansfield Brock and son Dr Malcolm Brock.

Most significantly for Dr Saul, while it was his distinction to be inducted as the 84th Honorary Fellow, it was he, ‘the Little Willie’, to indulge the colourful speech he has used elsewhere, who had the temerity back in the early 1970s to challenge the academic giants of the day establish a college in Bermuda.

Dr Saul, in his brief induction response, enlivened the gathering when he said point blank with a smile that “before I kick the bucket” he intended to record some of the cynicism his challenge provoked. He had just returned from Queen’s University in Toronto with his PhD, when he was invited to undertake an in-depth study of Bermuda educational system. The college was one of 93 recommendations.

A big question was where would we put a college? Admiralty House was the first answer. But that was instantly shut down by environmentalists.

Finally, the current site in Paget was purchased for $1.6 million dollars.

At the outset of this feature we noted how a multiplicity of events had engaged our attention this past week. Due to the restrictions of time and editorial space we must hold over fuller coverage next time around of the last rites for Doris Agatha Cholmondoley Webster, a Bermudian treasure and a founder of the BIU. Her funeral was at St Paul AME Church in Missouri, presided over by Rt Rev T Larry Kirkland.