Terrett “Terry” West, a businessman and volunteer who ran for political office in the 1990s, has died. Mr West was 66.

Mr West and his first wife, Yvonne, also founded the Bermuda Montessori School in 1986, a preschool in Pembroke that remains in operation.

Mr West was born in Bermuda and educated in Canada, where he pursued a career in football and qualified in physical education at the University of Ottawa.

He became involved in the world of sport when he returned to the island in 1985 and served on several local boards.

Mr West founded Windward Management, an investment management firm, with his second wife, Susan, in 1996 and became the firm’s president.

Mr West’s son, Eric, said the father of three grew up around Harrington Sound before the family moved to Canada, where he excelled at football.

He played at the University of Ottawa and later turned professional.

But he also started work with market research company AC Nielsen before he returned to Bermuda and climbed the ranks at the Bank of Bermuda.

Eric West said: “Like a lot of high-ranking people in business at that time, he didn’t have a business degree.”

Mr West became corporate production manager at the Bank of Bermuda.

He then headed its Bermuda funds division before he founded Windward.

The Bermuda Montessori School was founded on the family’s property on Rosemont Avenue, with Eric West, who spoke only Canadian French, as its first student.

Eric West said: “He was a hard-nosed business guy.

He really liked to participate in the community.

“He pushed me and my brother Scott and sister Nathalie quite hard. The gift he gave us was his drive to contribute and give back.”

Mr West presided over the Youth Sports Programme and helped found the World Rugby Classic. He was also a past president of the Bermuda Junior Golf Association and the Bermuda Golf Association.

He headed the governance committee for the Council Partners Charitable Trust, chaired the addiction service Fair Havens Treatment Centre for Women, and served on the National Drug Commission.

Mr West was also a former vice-chairman of the National Dance Foundation and a chairman of the Tourist Board marketing committee, the Air Transportation Policy Review Commission and the Cruise Ship Policy Review Commission.

Ariane West, a niece, said Mr West was “an incredibly social, outgoing person who loved being around people — that was probably the essence of his personality”.

She added: “He loved his kids. There was nothing he would not do as a father, and as an uncle as well.”

Mr West was chairman of the former United Bermuda Party’s Pembroke West Central branch and contested a Paget West primary for the UBP in 1992, but lost out to Tim Smith.

He said at the time: “I think it’s time to be involved. I think this country is going to go through a significant period of change.

“Capable people have to step forward. And the more there are, the better.”