Peter Doyles laughs when he says has been in the education system in one form or another since he was five - a marathon 67 years - and it is time that he finally got out.

The veteran teacher and administrator is retiring at the age of 72 after thousands of pupils passed under his watchful eye, first at the Island's schools, then Bermuda College and finally running the Bermuda Insurance Institute.

“I have always loved my work, no matter how challenging it has been over the years,” he said. “But my most rewarding job has been here, at the Bermuda Insurance Institute, where I have watched Bermudians move up the ranks of the insurance companies.”

Mr. Doyles was born in Lincolnshire in England in a small village called New Holland, where he grew up and went to school. At the age of 18, he left his home town and went into the army to do his national service - but he already knew he wanted to be a teacher when he left school.

So after a stint in Germany he headed off to Leeds University to study mathematics and physical education. He said: “I liked physical education and I was good at maths. I wanted one really good academic subject that I could teach, so that was maths.”

His first teaching post was in Grimsby, but in 1963 saw an advert for a job in Bermuda and went for it.

“I was looking to get out of England at that time,” he said. “At about the same time I got offered a job in Uganda. Idi Amin was about to come into power, and that wouldn't have been too much fun.”

He was married with a young family, and made the choice of moving to Bermuda, a choice he said was one of the best things he ever did.

At first he found Bermuda a bit of a culture shock and was not sure if he would like it, but after his first summer on the Island there was no looking back.

“I didn't want to go anywhere else,” he said. And no wonder. He spend his first five summers diving with Teddy Tucker and the Smithsonian Institute, working on the reconstruction and measuring of wrecks.

“If you get the chance to do something like that, you don't really ever want to leave,” he said. He had been hired to work at Prospect Secondary School for Boys, which was considered at the time the roughest schools around.

“We used to grumble about the children's behaviour,” he said. “It was difficult to settle them down to work, but we got 100 percent support from the parents. The students were playful rather than vicious.”

Mr. Doyles said that there have been thousands of students that have passed through the schools and institutions he has taught at or managed. And he said he still could remember vividly the students he taught right the way through his career.

“The ones you remember are the good ones and the bad ones,” he said. “I went to a wedding of one of my former students and someone came up to me and said “I bet you don't remember who I am”, and I reeled off his name. I could never forget him he was one of the worst students I have ever had.”

He also told a story of another difficult and naughty student who ended up being a bus driver - and came to him years later complaining about rowdy schoolchildren. “I thought that was rather funny,” he said.

Mr. Doyles then went to Northlands Secondary in 1974 as school principal, where he stayed for about ten years.

He moved on to Bermuda College in 1982 to be in charge of adult and continuing education.

“By that point the atmosphere in schools had changed. One of the things I thought that it was my job to do was to give teachers an atmosphere in which they could teach. And to do that I was spending too much time on discipline. It was a good school, but that was needed to keep it a good school.

“Adult and continuing education at the college let me go to a place where people wanted to be educated. It was a huge shift. I found it was much longer hours and I didn't have as much vacation time, but on the other hand I was less stressed. The people there were thirsty for knowledge.”

He said there were two courses there which gave him particular pleasure because of the benefits they gave to the adult pupils.

One was a nursery teachers course, and the other a geriatric aid course.

“People who did these courses had not achieved much in their lives, so they were so happy when they graduated. It was great to see them.”

In 1994 Mr. Doyles joined the Bermuda Insurance Institute as director of education and training. “I have found this job so rewarding. I have two angels right next door, Carol Pitt and Delma Parfitt - if it had not been for those two I would have retired a lot earlier. They make my job so easy, it is a shame to retire.”

He said he has seen many changes since he joined the BII. “Firstly the growth in the industry has been phenomenal. I have seen companies come and go, be taken over, merged and new ones set up. It is like the solar system, there may be one star blacking out, but then new stars are born.”

And he said that the emphasis has changed in their teaching at the BII from the English system to the US system.

At one time it was the English exams which were the only ones available, but over the years it is the Chartered Property and Casualty Underwriting set of American exams which are almost exclusively taken.

In his first year, 285 courses were sat by 150 students. In 2003, there were 428 courses taken, and many more student go through their doors and 84 designations gained.

“Anyone who wants to come here to study can come while they are in Bermuda. We have seen a a number of Bermudians come through here and we are now seeing them move up the ranks.

“So we are doing what we are here to do, to train Bermudians to enter and advance in the industry.”

And now he will be retiring at the end of the year, with more than a hint of regret at leaving his much-loved job.

“It is time now, otherwise I shall find that I will not be able to do the activities I want to do because I will be too old.”

But he said if he had retired earlier, he would not have had enough money to retire - and he really had to keep on working to make sure he and his wife were comfortable.

“I could not have retired on a Government pension,” he said. “Even though I was fairly high up in the hierarchy.”

Mr. Doyles said he will not be taking on any more work after he retires, as he intends to travel and play golf with his wife of 33 years, Lynn.

Between them they have four children and ten grandchildren, and will stay in Bermuda for their retirement.

“The sun is never going to set on me,” he said when asked if he was heading off into the sunset now he was retiring. “I don't picture me riding off into the sunset never to be seen again.”