Bermuda International Airport is to be renamed next month in honour of the late Progressive Labour Party Leader Frederick Wade (pictured).

The airport will become the L.F. Wade International Airport on April 16 — three years after Mr. Wade’s widow Ianthia called on Government to begin honouring its national heroes by naming public buildings, institutions and streets after them.

Mr. Wade’s close friend and party colleague Ottiwell Simmons said last night that if anyone deserved such recognition it was “Freddie”.

“There is no doubt that we all see Frederick Wade as the pioneer of progress,” said the PLP chief whip. “Of course he did stand on the shoulders of some of our founding members and former leaders but in his own right he was a leader.”

Acting Cabinet Secretary Judith Hall-Bean said that the renaming of the airport after Mr. Wade was part of an initiative promised in the PLP’s 1998 election platform.

She said the party pledged then to “celebrate national figures in meaningful ways inclusive of the naming of buildings, streets and other public areas” and that since coming to power it had named the central bus terminal in Hamilton after Hubert (Sparky) Lightbourne and the Parliamentary Registry Building after Valerie T. Scott.

She added: “Leading up to the airport renaming, there will be a series of announcements, advertisements, and smaller events designed to not only advise the public of the name change, but also to inform and remind them of L. Frederick Wade’s memory and his historical contribution to Bermuda.

“Ultimately there will be an official dedication ceremony at the airport led by the Premier, Dr. the Honourable Ewart Brown, JP, MP on April 16 to formally mark the occasion.”

Mr. Wade took over from Dame Lois Browne-Evans as PLP leader in 1985 and died in 1996 at the age of 57 two years before his party took power for the first time. He is widely acknowledged as having rebuilt the party and sowed the seeds of its first election success.

His widow was off the Island last night but at a PLP Founder’s Day luncheon in March 2004 she said Bermuda needed to take national pride in its people.

“Frederick once said the day will come when people will say ‘Frederick? Frederick who?’,” she said. “I hope that day will never come.”