A champion for addicts who was devoted to the Salvation Army enjoyed a lengthy public service career, from the prison service to the courts.

Calvin Ming Jr was a bandmaster in the Salvation Army as well as a co-ordinator for social services and a director of public relations and development.

He continued volunteering for the charity in retirement right up to this Christmas.

Mr Ming also headed the Salvation Army’s aftercare services for recovering addicts.

He was known to many as the island’s second recipient of a heart transplant, when the community rallied behind him during his gruelling eight-month recovery with a fundraising drive after his surgery in April 1993.

“With faith and hard work, it is possible to move mountains,” Mr Ming said after returning home in time for Christmas.

The surgery was carried out at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Centre in Pennsylvania.

The transplant saved his life from a condition known as idiopathic ventricular cardiomyopathy, which destroyed his heart muscle.

Mr Ming was given the heart of a 19-year-old high diver who lost his life while competing.

On the 20th anniversary of the life-saving operation, Mr Ming told The Royal Gazette that seldom did a day pass when he did not reflect on how another family’s tragedy had kept him alive.

“Don’t ever take life for granted,” he said.

“If you have the strength to do something, go ahead and do it — because you never know if you’ll have another chance.

“I live each day like today is my last. I’ve only got today, so I’ve got to do my best. Tomorrow is promised to no one.”

His heart was in perfect health and his body did not reject the transplant.

However, his daily regimen of drugs to keep his immune system from attacking the transplant caused kidney damage.

In January 2011, three days before he turned 30, his son Calvin Ming III donated one of his kidneys to his father.

Surgeons had estimated that Mr Ming would get an extra eight to ten years of life after the heart transplant — with his survival beyond 30 years confounding expectations.

His other claim to fame was his prominence with the Salvation Army at Christmas, when he led the band on Christmas carolling around the island.

Mr Ming played the coronet, courtesy of his grandfather Ernest Bean, also a Salvation Army band leader.

Mr Ming was closely involved in the charity’s Christmas services for residents at its shelter and the Harbour Light addiction programme, as well as distributing Christmas hampers and toys for families in need.

Describing himself as “a fourth-generation Salvationist”, Mr Ming was involved all his life.

His childhood struggle with dyslexia emerged at Central School, now Victor Scott Primary School, but Mr Ming completed schooling at Montclair High School in New Jersey.

He attended Montclair State College, followed by the American Academy McAllister Institute.

He obtained a degree in mortuary science along with business qualifications.

Mr Ming’s career in the public service began in 1977 as the first civilian financial administrative officer for the prison service.

He later became an administrator in the Ministry of Health and Social Services.

In 1983, Mr Ming was asked to become the administrator of the Royal Commission into the Use and Misuse of Illicit Drugs and Alcohol, which recommended the creation of the National Alcohol and Drug Agency.

Mr Ming served as Nada’s executive officer, also founding the Youth to Youth drug awareness organisation.

Positions included serving as a prevention officer and acting chief executive at the National Drug Commission in the 1990s.

He served as a drugs adviser overseas, including in Belize and the Caribbean.

When Bermuda’s drug court was launched in 2000, Mr Ming co-ordinated the programme.

He was an advocate for alternatives to incarceration, and also worked as a senior probation officer with court services.

Calvin Ming III said that his father was “the type of man this world needs”.

“Knowing what he stood for and the example he gave helps make this process a bit smoother for us as a family. He was literally a gift. He fought hardship everywhere he faced, with dignity and humour.”

He said his father had “lived on borrowed time for 31 years, and seized every moment”.

“There has been a massive outpouring of people paying their respects from all over the world. I can only describe him as a giant among men.

“He had the ability to connect with anyone, whether they were heads of state or had the unfortunate circumstance of living on the street.

“One of the reasons why his word meant so much to people was because he had walked through fire, fought for his life, learnt how to walk and talk again.”

He added: “He lived a life of contribution and was completely reliable for his family as he was for the community.”

The Salvation Army paid tribute to Mr Ming and gave “sincere condolences and the assurance of our prayers to his wife, Juanita Ming, and to his children Carol, Carla and Calvin III, and their families”.

“The legacy of his life and commitment to the ministry will remain with many people he encountered, both in Bermuda and around the world.”

• Calvin Roosevelt Ming, a Salvation Army band leader and prominent drug addiction counsellor, was born on December 5, 1947. He died on January 1, 2024, aged 76