A businessman, hospitality leader and a former MP for the West End who led the redevelopment of Dockyard as a major tourist destination has died.J.C. “Kit” Astwood, who passed on May 28, was 87.Mr Astwood, a businessman and consultant who was a director of dozens of companies, was chairman of the Bermuda Hotel Association for decades.He was a Sandys North MP for the United Bermuda Party between 1968 and 1980.He was one of the party’s founding members in 1964 and helped with the draft of the island’s Constitution four years later.Mr Astwood had an instinct for the island’s potential for tourism as well as international business.He helped transform Dockyard as chairman of the West End Development Corporation, a quango that he had lobbied the Government to form.Mr Astwood said in a 1990 interview that the creation of Wedco involved a struggle.He added later: “I never doubted we could succeed in the West End. I am like a man who jumps off a cliff without a parachute.“Somehow I know I will land safely.”Mr Astwood told The Royal Gazette in 1994 when he stepped down as Wedco chairman after ten years: “I have always found most satisfying those things that carry the greatest risk.”After a business career that started with a Mobylette motorbike and pedal cycle rental to tourists through JB Astwood and Sons, a company on Front Street that his grandfather started in 1890, he became president of the Bermuda Chamber of Commerce in 1968 and 1969.The company, and its division Astwood Cycles Ltd, gave him an early insight into Bermuda’s boom in tourism.Mr Astwood, a gifted swimmer, was in his youth a competitor in the elimination heats for the Bermuda Olympic swimming team.He still enjoyed a daily swim out to the wreck of the Vixen off the West End in later life.Mr Astwood, after studying geography at Cambridge University, set out in 1953 on a globe-trotting scientific expedition with fellow students.Their travels across North Africa took them to Ethiopia, where they measured the country’s largest lake, Lake Tana, the source of the Blue Nile.His later travels took him to Hong Kong, where his exploits included a job at the South China Morning Post newspaper and racing a Fiat 1100 in the first Macau Grand Prix in 1954.But politics ran in the family — his father, Sir Jeffrey Astwood, started his career in the field in 1948 and represented Somerset as an independent Member of the then Colonial Parliament and held a variety of Cabinet posts from the early 1950s.Sir Jeffrey, who died in 1996, was also Speaker of the House from 1968 to 1972.Another family trait was a love of gardening and plants.Mr Astwood’s uncle, the architect Will Onions, was a founder of Paget’s Aberfeldy Nurseries in 1950.Sir Jeffrey, one of the founders of the Bermuda Rose Society in 1954, later took charge of the business and was followed by Mr Astwood.In 2009, Mr Astwood sold Aberfeldy, also the name of his home on Long Bay Lane in Somerset. He led the Living Landmark Appeal in 1991 and raised millions to refurbish the Cathedral of the Most Holy Trinity in Hamilton.Mr Astwood served on a commission under Mayor of Hamilton Jay Bluck in 2006 that was tasked with reviewing the management and development of the city.He also founded Advertising Associates and channelled his knack for ideas into his firm, Capital Consultants, which notched up successes in Bermuda and overseas — including a construction company in the Grand Bahamas and a vineyard in Australia.Mr Astwood also turned his hand to writing — he penned Bermuda and the Next Millennium, a blueprint of ideas for steering the island’s 21st-century development, in 1997. He was appointed an Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire in 1988 for his public service.His widow, Denise, whom he married in 1981, said he was a “renaissance man”.She added: “He could see things coming, and envisage how to get there. He was a fantastic MP who always sought the positive in people.“He was also meticulous. He believed in good training and clear thinking to get things done.”The couple have a son, Christopher — the same name that gave Mr Astwood his nickname “Kit”.Mr Astwood attended Saltus Grammar School and later transferred to Charterhouse, a prestigious English public school, which he credited with teaching him self-sufficiency.He led the rebirth of Dockyard, from the creation of the Bermuda Arts Centre to the esplanade, the marina and cruise terminal and the Clocktower Mall, in the 1980s.Dockyard had shed thousands of jobs and fallen into disrepair since the Royal Navy pulled out in 1951. But many people opposed the transfer of the asset to a corporation as Mr Astwood lobbied for the creation of Wedco in the early 1980s.Mrs Astwood said he wanted Dockyard “restored and renovated for everyone in Bermuda” and triumphed over doubters who said it was a pipe dream.Dockyard blossomed after a massive restoration and the late Princess Margaret opened the Arts Centre in 1984. Mr Astwood succeeded Geoffrey Kitson as Wedco chairman in 1985.Other major figures involved in the redevelopment included Proctor Martin, Bob Barker, Robert Tucker and George Smith,Mrs Astwood said her husband was never one to squabble with those who disagreed with him.She added: “He felt politics was a way to help people — he didn’t like it to be antagonistic. It was a means to do right for the society he loved.”David Dodwell, president of the Reefs hotel in Southampton, said Mr Astwood was honoured for his near 40-year service as the Bermuda Hotel Association chairman.Mr Dodwell added: “He was an amazing advocate for the hotel industry, incredibly loyal to us and he was so humble — he actually kept trying to give up his position, saying he’d been at it too long, that he loved it but it was time for us to change.”Mr Astwood headed the BHA from the late 1960s, even though he was not a hotelier, and forged connections between local and overseas hotel owners.Mr Dodwell said Mr Astwood’s counsel was valued and he brokered opportunities with the Government, as well as interceding in disputes ­— including an early argument over whether credit card payments would be accepted.Mr Dodwell added: “Kit was ahead of his time. He was a forerunner who made it a point to understand our business.“He benefited from the success of tourism — but that wasn’t why he did it.”Mr Astwood is survived by wife Denise, sons Christopher and Bryan Astwood, daughters Jean Astwood, Margaret Proulx and Bridget Gale, and six grandchildren.Jeffrey Christopher “Kit” Astwood, businessman, was born on March 20, 1933. He died on May 28, 2020, aged 87