A dedication ceremony was held this morning on the steps of the Administration Building, also known as the “Complex Building,” the home to several government departments on Mahogany Street. When the ceremony was over, the building had a new name. It was renamed the Charles Bartlett Hyde Building in honor of Mr. Charles Bartlett Hyde, for his decades of dedication and service to Belize, both inside and outside of the government service.
The welcome address was given by Hon. John Saldivar, Minister with responsibility for the Public Service. Guest speaker for the renaming ceremony was Mr. Paul Rodriguez, the former Ombudsman, who is also a long time friend of Mr. Charles B. Hyde. The keynote address was delivered by Prime Minister, Hon. Dean Oliver Barrow. Mr. Hyde also addressed the gathering of civil servants, family, friends and well wishers.
Hon. Saldivar called C.B. Hyde a “great and special Belizean.” He went on to say that Mr. Hyde is a model worthy of emulation, who has given more than fifty years of service to the nation as a whole.
Mr. Paul Rodriguez said that the building houses three of the most important government departments – Income Tax, Immigration and Sales Tax. Mr. Rodriguez said that since Mr. Hyde’s retirement from the Post Office as Postmaster General in 1978, he has been appointed to fourteen important boards, among them Chairman of the Judicial and Legal Commission, Chairman of the Tourist Board, and Chairman of the Public Services Commission. He was also Speaker of the House of Representatives from 1979 to 1984, and guided parliament through the rocky days leading up to Independence.
Rodriguez said that Mr. Hyde was an athlete who excelled in football, basketball, cricket, tennis, and long jump. He established a record in running long jump that lasted for 20 years, from 1948 to 1968.
“C.B. Hyde is great but not controversial,” Rodriguez declared. “C.B. is one of the top three essayists in Belize.”
Prime Minister Barrow said that he had a personal as well as an official interest in today’s ceremonies. He went on to say that Mr. C.B. is perhaps the greatest living former public officer that this country has.
“Life, of course, has a funny way of coming full circle. And it turns out that Mr. C.B., who was my father’s friend, has now become my friend.”
Prime Minister Barrow said that of late he has now become accustomed to sitting on Mr. C.B’s spacious sea breeze cooled verandah and to drink deeply from the accumulated wisdom of a mind that was and is first rate.
“The renaming of this building lays down a permanent marker for him and all that he has done…As a nation we are grateful.”
Following the Prime Minister’s address, a red ribbon was cut and a plaque bearing the name: the Charles Bartlett Hyde Building was unveiled.
Mr. C. B. Hyde was called upon to say a few words of his own. Please see Mr. Hyde’s address below:
Mister Master of Ceremonies, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen:
When I was appointed to the post of Postmaster General in the Civil Service, the Reverend G. Rodwell Hulse decided that he would be my mentor. He gave me a lot of good advice. One of them was the proper way to address a gathering where there was a Master of Ceremonies. G. Rodwell was a prominent member of the Anglican clergy, and he was the first Belizean graduate of Oxford University. So, I paid him heed. ‘Let the Master of Ceremonies acknowledge the dignitaries, but you do as I advise.’ And that is what I have done.
In one of his best poems, the great English poet, William Wordsworth, wrote: “The child is father to the man.” No truer words have ever been written, for to a lesser or greater extent, we are all products of our childhood.
I was born in a small house on Canalside at the foot of Bolton Bridge. It was built of virgin pine covered by shingles and is still standing strong after being battered by two major hurricanes – the nameless one of 1931 and Hattie, which struck in 1961, thirty years after. The house stands as a testament to the quality of the builders of olden times.
My address was No.1 West Canal. On the other side at No. 4 East Canal lived Mr. Ebenezer Oliver Bunting Barrow, grandfather of our Prime Minister, the Hon. Dean Oliver Barrow. The canals were built to drain the city, but they later became open sewers. Southside Canal, which was the name of our canal, was not fit to play in except in May and June when strong southeasterly winds swept it clean. Then we raced sailboats made from shingle wood with grape leaf sails and rudders of old razor blades.
The Barrow, Bladen, Usher, Gabourel, Henderson and Hyde children played marbles, tops and ballgames in the streets or in Burns open yard, raced barrel hoops and stick horses made from mangrove branches in the streets, and flew kites made from shingle wood frames. Shingle was ideal for the purpose, being very light, easy to cut into strips and also plentiful from a house which was destroyed in the hurricane of 1931 and abandoned in Burns yard.
Lest you may be thinking you will be obliged to listen to all the details of my life, let me assure you that it will be only a thumbnail sketch.
My parents, like most others at that time, believed in keeping a firm rein on their children. They believed also that it was their duty to find useful things for their children to do, because the devil finds work for idle hands, and also they believed in the rod of correction.
My father, who was a seaman, thought that children, like sailboats, needed to have their rigging tightened from time to time. My wife was like him, and when someone complained that she was too hard on her children, remarked that she raised them so that others might love them, because they were already assured that she did.
When I was 12 years old, I got my first job with Sergeant Maurice Fuller, who lived in the lot adjoining, to chop firewood and run errands for 25 cents a week. Next when I was a graduate of St. John’s College, as office boy at Mr. Thurton’s office at a weekly salary of one dollar.
My father wanted me to be a machinist, engineer, and seaman like he was, but my mother thought that my Cambridge School Certificate entitled me to something better. I was at the crossroads when Providence intervened in the person of Mr. Lindsey Jefferies, Treasury Superintendent. He suggested to his friend Jim Hyde that I apply for the vacant post of Messenger in his department with a salary of fifteen dollars a month. That was the beginning of my civil service career and a lifetime of public service which has led me to where I am today.
Shakespeare said through the mouth of Julius Caesar, “Some are born great (like emperors and kings), some achieve greatness (like the Right Hon. George Price, Hon. Philip Goldson, Sir Edney Cain, Samuel Haynes and T. V. Ramos), and some have greatness thrust upon them (like a few fortunate ones, myself included).” I should say that the similes are not the poet’s.
In going over my life, as I have, what have I learnt that may be helpful to a young parent who has a child to raise and would like him or her to do well? I think my advice could be fittingly expressed in the words of a music professor to the young violinist he was preparing for his first concert. The young violinist was being distracted by an emotional attachment and his teacher said to him, “There is no success without discipline, and no discipline without sacrifice.” It would help also if they had a deep abiding faith in God, the Most High, as I do.
It is a great honor that my countrymen have seen fit to bestow on me and I am deeply moved and grateful to all who have been involved in naming this imposing building after me. I wish to share this moment with my beloved wife, Elinor, our immediate and extended family, my friends and close associates and all those who wish me well.
I should now like to thank most sincerely, the Hon. Prime Minister, and my good friend Mr. Paul Rodriguez, Belize’s former Ombudsman, for their kind and generous words. I am almost persuaded by what they have said that, I might be deserving of this honor.
America calls itself the land of opportunity and is proud to declare that in that country a shoeshine boy could be president. Well now, I can say that in Belize a boy born on Canalside can have an important public building named after him, while he is still alive.