In our feature a fortnight ago on the celebration of the 75th anniversary of Central School (renamed Victor Scott School), we noted how Mr. Scott was one of a group of educators brought to Bermuda from Jamaica to upgrade and anchor the local public school system.

In addition to Mr. Scott were C. Isaac Henry, C.C Snaith and A.E. Guishard. They had been preceded by C.A. DaCosta, the first principal of the Berkeley Institute. They were all friends, and met regularly. The widespread and continuing impact of these icons and their immediate families from the Caribbean is immeasurable.

A case in point is Bertram Ian Edward Guishard, B.A., and M.Ed. FBIM FRSA..

A retired Dean of the Bermuda College Faculty of Arts & Science, he was the first of the nine children of A.E. Guishard and his Bermuda-born wife Bernice Lennon. Senior Guishard was the longserving principal of the East End. He had taught for a short while earlier at Southampton Glebe School (now Dalton Tucker School).

While it may seem trite to say that young Bertram followed in his father's footsteps, so did all of his siblings. Highly educated like him, those who did not head first one school then another, were outstanding leaders in the civil service as well as in the private sector.

Bertram was feted at a surprise 80th birthday dinner at Willowbank Resort in Somerset last week. It was attended by 150 family, friends and colleagues from the wide spectrum connected with him over the years.

Since retiring from education in 1993 he has been active in various religious bodies and, among other things, is director and long-serving trustee of the 45-acre Heydon Trust that embraces ten buildings and a chapel in Somerset.

Bertram was born in Southampton on May 9, 1928. He began his teaching career at the age of 15 upon graduating from the Berkeley Institute where he won the school prize for mathematics. He entered McGill University on a Bermuda Government Technical Scholarship; at London University he gained his PGCE and Phys. Ed. Diploma as well as a Diploma in Supervisory Management.

He is a Fellow of the British Institute of Management; at Toronto University he earned his Ed.D (ABD in Measurement, Evaluation and Computer Applications).

For many years Bertram was first secretary and later vice-chairman of the Berkeley Education Society. He is a life member of the Bermuda Union of Teachers, having joined its predecessor in 1944; he is also a life member of the Royal Society of Arts and since 2003 an elder of the Presbyterian Church of Scotland, Christ Church, Warwick.

Three years ago Bertram had a close brush with death. While driving to his home in Somerset his car crashed into a car parked without lights near Somerset Bridge. He has spent weeks in hospitals in Bermuda and abroad for treatment of a neck injury.

Bertram's eight siblings included the late Mrs. Marjorie Richardson, a head of the Girls Institute of Arts & Craft as well as head of several Seventh-Day Adventist Schools.

Her son, Edward Richardson, became the first president of the Bermuda Conference of the SDA. The late Mrs. Dorothy Simmons was deputy head of West End School; her twin brother, Arthur Guishard, is a retired head of Maintenance at Fairmont Southampton.

Mrs. Phyllis Basden is retired and former head of the Stamp Department at the General Post Office; Mrs. Ianthe Tucker is retired Pension Administrator of Argus Life Insurance.

George Guishard, who was born in 1939, died at age 11 months. Mrs. Rosamund Daniels and Philip Guishard were the second set of twins born to A.E and Bernice Guishard. She is the retired postmistress of St. David's Post Office. Philip, retired educator, taught at St. George's Secondary and West Pembroke School; he was head of the Junior Training School on Paget Island, is sports adviser for the Youth & Sports Department and is a former head of Bermuda Olympic delegations.

Our photo shows Bertram Guishard, fourth from left, with his surviving siblings at his surprise 80th birthday dinner at Willowbank. Others are Arthur Guishard, Rosamund Daniels, Phyllis Basden and Philip Guishard.