The Tribune

By KYLE WALKINE

Tribune Staff Reporter

kwalkine@tribunemedia.net

TRIBUTES have been paid to former Parliamentarian Bernard Dupuch after he passed away in the early hours of yesterday at his Seabreeze home following years of declining health. He was 81.

Former Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham led by saying Mr Dupuch would always be remembered for his reliability and trustworthiness in business and for his commitment to offering only the best quality product. “The Bahamas business community has lost another of its pioneers,” Mr Ingraham said. “Mr Dupuch leaves a wonderful legacy as a family man and well-respected businessman.”

The third of six children of the late Sir Etienne and Lady Dupuch and brother of The Tribune’s Publisher/Editor Eileen Dupuch Carron, Bernard Dupuch made history on May 2, 1962, when he became one of six independent candidates elected to parliament. 

During his political career Mr Dupuch served as Chairman of The Bahamas Electricity Corporation (BEC) and acting Minister of Works. He is also credited for writing several articles in the Travel section of The New York Times to promote tourism in The Bahamas. 

Mr Dupuch honed his journalistic skills as a news reporter at The Tribune for two years before becoming the Advertising Manager in 1954, a post he held for 18 years. 

The former member of parliament for Mayaguana and Inagua was also a businessman, a career he pursued after he retired from politics in 1968 - when he was defeated as a member of the United Bahamas Party (UBP) - to join his brother, Pierre, in running their business, Executive Printers. 

Growing up, Mr Dupuch was educated at St Francis Xavier’s in Nassau, St. John’s Prep School (a part of St John’s University in Collegeville, Minnesota) and in England at St Edmunds in Ware, Hertfordshire. He also worked as a summer trainee news reporter for two years at the Evening Standard in London. 

MICAL Member of Parliament V Alfred Gray extended his sympathy to Mr Dupuch’s family and said the people of Mayaguana and Inagua still speak exceptionally well of their former MP, who was voted in to represent those islands in 1962 as an independent candidate. 

“It may not have been the MICAL constituency at the time he represented the people of those islands, but those people have not forgotten Bernard Dupuch,” Mr Gray said of one of his predecessors.

“My knowledge of his tenure as their MP is very small but from all I heard, he was a good representative and the people loved him because he was very benevolent. He created a bond with them and they have not forgotten that.

“Certainly he made a very big contribution to the political development of The Bahamas, particularly those islands long before I was involved in politics. But we see now that his name certainly continues.”

Mr Dupuch the businessman enjoyed gardening, travelling, swimming and fishing.  He leaves a son Anthony, granddaughter Alina and daughter-in-law Rose.

He is also survived by two brothers, Etienne Jr and Pierre, three sisters, Eileen Carron, Joan Munnings of Freeport and Bette Howe of Guelph, Ontario, as well as a host of other relatives.  

His wife, Maryanne (Bartos) of New Jersey, died in 2007.

Funeral services will be announced later.