Young people aspiring to work in the hotel industry should take a leaf out of late hotelier Reginald “Toby” Dillas’s book according to Jim Woolridge — The Voice of Summer.

The veteran cricket commentator described Mr Dillas as “one of the most dedicated and committed people that I have ever had the pleasure of being associated with”.

Mr Dillas, a leading figure in the Island’s hotel and tourism industry and the first black manager of a major Island hotel — the iconic Bermudiana Hotel — died at the age of 76 following a short illness.

A former Minister of Tourism, Mr Woolridge worked closely with Mr Dillas when he was starting out at The New Windsor Hotel. He said: “The young people aspiring to become involved in the hotel industry can very well emulate the example set by Toby. He did a great job. He had a great deal to do with influencing young people. He applied himself and gave them all the assistance that he could. The country owes him a great deal of credit.

“When we are talking about young people becoming committed to the profession, Toby fits the bill exactly. When he moved to The Bermudiana, it was almost like he was on skates because he just moved ahead and eventually became assistant manager over there and at the same time he seemed to have his profession in view.”

Mr Dillas worked in the tourism industry for 48 years starting off as a busboy for The Empire Club at The New Windsor Hotel. He climbed the ranks working for the Trusthouse Forte and became the first black manager of a major hotel on the Island when he was appointed general manager of the group’s Bermudiana Hotel in 1979.

In 1989, he was employed as the Department of Tourism’s regional manager for North East America in Boston where he promoted travel to the Island.

He then worked in New York as the Department of Tourism’s director for sales for North America. In April 2011 he was given the Lifetime Achievement Award at the prestigious VIP Excellence Awards.

During the ceremony he said that one of his career highlights was when movie stars Doris Day and Cary Grant sneaked into the Bermudiana’s nightclub where he worked and shook hands with actor John Wayne.

In a statement issued yesterday, former Premier Ewart Brown said: “Toby Dillas was my boss at the Bermudiana hotel when I worked there as a waiter in the sixties. Over the years we became closer and I sought his opinion on hospitality issues when I served as Tourism and Transport Minister.

“Toby was Mr. Bermuda. Wherever I travelled on behalf of the Bermuda Department of Tourism, people always asked about ‘that guy Toby Dillas’. Even after his retirement, Toby always did what he could for his island home. He was a bright light.”

The former Progressive Labour Party leader said he and his wife Wanda joined “countless others” in expressing their sympathy to Mr Dillas’s widow Lauren and the rest of his family.

Former chief executive of the Bermuda Hotel Association, Jonathan Harvey, worked with Mr Dillas over the years. He said: “He was not only an outstanding professional hotelier but he was also a hotelier who gained the respect of his colleagues and of the travelling and wholesale tour operators and travel agents who supplied us with the business.

“Toby had the unique knack of being their favourite because of his outstanding warm and pleasing personality. He availed himself 24 hours a day throughout his career.

“He was a great ambassador. After his career with the hotel industry he worked with the Ministry of Tourism first in Boston which was a very strong market for Bermuda and he took it from strength to strength. He increased our business tremendously and created the demand for the North Eastern corridor of the US. We travelled quite a bit selling Bermuda and I know of no one who gave the time, effort and the passion that he did.”

Mr Dillas acted as a mentor to many local youngsters and encouraged them into the tourism industry.

Molly Burgess, general secretary of the Bermuda Industrial Union and organiser for hotels and restaurants said: “Besides knowing him as the GM, I also knew him personally. He was a great guy. I want to say thank-you to him because in those days my son [Gary] was going to hotel college and he adopted him as one of the students. During the summer the students would work at the hotel.”

Mr Dillas leaves behind his wife Lauren and children.