Obituary
Nico on Dec 09 2006
3 October 1941 – 25 November 2006
Winston Saunders was born 3 October 1941 to Harcourt and Miriam Saunders. He attended Quarry Mission School under the late Thelma Gibson, Western Junior School under the late Timothy Gibson, and studied piano under the late Meta Davis-Cumberbatch. He won a place at the Government High School, and attended under Dr. Dean Peggs and Mr. Hugh Davies, where he served as Head Boy. As a musician, he was Organist at the Church of the Holy Spirit and at St. Mary the Virgin Anglican Church.
He attended the Bahamas Teacher’s Training College in Oakes Field under the Rev. Dr. Charles Saunders, and in 1964 obtained a B.A. Degree from London University in Classics. He returned to Nassau, and taught English at St. Anne’s High School from 1964 until 1968.
He married the former Gail North on April 15, 1968, and returned to London that autumn to pursue a Postgraduate Certificate in Education at London University.
Mr. Saunders returned to Nassau to take up the post of Vice Principal at R. M. Bailey, a position he held from 1969 till 1970. He joined the Chambers of Isaacs, Johnson and Co. in 1970 as an Articled Law Student to Ms. Jeanne Thompson, and was called to the Bahamas Bar on September 19, 1974. He became a partner in the law firm of McKinney, Bancroft and Hughes, and worked as a lecturer in Law at the University of the West Indies (Nassau Campus). Between 1993-2000 he served as Her Majesty’s Coroner.
His commitment to Bahamian culture was as deep as it was broad. In 1973, he wrote the script for, directed, and served as producer of Pages in Bahamian History, the pageant presented at the Independence Celebrations at Clifford Park attended by His Royal Highness, the Prince of Wales. In addition he served as writer and director of the pageant celebrating the 250th Anniversary of Parliament in 1979, performed at Paradise Island’s Le Cabaret Theatre, and attended by H.R.H. Princess Anne.
In 1975, Mr. Saunders took up the position of Chairman of the Dundas Civic Centre, and served as Chairman until 1998. During his tenure as Chairman of the Dundas, Bahamian drama thrived. He oversaw the renovations of the theatre, established a repertory season, and under his guidance an entire generation of directors, actors and playwrights was raised.
A consummate actor and playwright himself, he is best known for originating such roles as “Pa Ben”, in Trevor Rhone’s Old Story Time and “Maphusa” in Ian Strachan’s The Mysterious Mister Maphusa; his performance in Old Story Time earned him recognition as one of the greatest actors in the region by Professor Rex Nettleford. He also played “Zachariah” in Athol Fugard’s The Blood Knot, “Peter” in Edward Albee’s The Zoo Story, “Midge” in Herb Gardner’s I’m Not Rappaport and “Charlie” in Larry Shue’s The Foreigner — all on the Dundas stage. As a director, he brought productions such as Shaffer’s Equus and Baldwin’s Amen Corner to Bahamian audiences. He co-directed E. Clement Bethel’s Sammie Swain with Philip A. Burrows in 1983 and in 1985 for the Command Performance for H. M. Queen Elizabeth II, and in 1987, co-directed the first Caribbean opera in English, Cleophas Adderley’s Our Boys with Philip A. Burrows; in 1989 and 1990 he produced Dis We Tings I and II.
It is as a playwright, however, that Mr. Saunders’ greatest dramatic achievement was gained. He is the author of two seminal Bahamian dramas, Them and You Can Lead A Horse To Water, as well as a series of satirical commentaries on Bahamian life, the Nehemiah Quartet. You Can Lead A Horse To Water was based on his experience as a young lawyer, and is widely recognized as the greatest Bahamian play, and was produced in Nassau, Freeport, San Francisco, Edinburgh, Michigan, and Trinidad and Tobago.
In the wider cultural and professional field, Mr. Saunders wrote on Banking in The Bahamas in various law journals, and conducted and spoke at many conferences in Corporate and Trust Law. In 1990, he accepted the post of Consultant for Cultural Affairs for the Bahamas Quincentennial Commission, and in that same year retired from the active practice of law. Between 1990 and 1992, he assumed the responsibility for 40 cultural committees established to spearhead the Quincentennial Celebrations. He served as Commissioner General for The Bahamas to Spain for Expo ’92 held in Seville as part of those celebrations.
During that period, too, he was responsible for the revival or institutionalization of three existing entities — the National Youth Choir (originally established in 1983 for the Tenth Anniversary Celebrations of Bahamian Independence), the National Children’s Choir, and the National Youth Orchestra. He established a fourth, the National Dance Company. Between 1987 and 1990 he served on CARICOM’s Regional Committee on Culture, and from 1992 to 1995 he served on the OAS Committee for Culture for the Caribbean and the Americas.
From 2002, he served as the Chairman of the Independence Committee, having worked not only on the first Independence Celebrations but also the Twentieth, Twenty-Fifth, and Thirtieth Anniversaries of Independence.
He served as Chairman of the Salvation Army Advisory Board, and as a member for many years. During his administration, the Board was responsible for raising approximately $1 million to forward the work of the Salvation Army.
He was a recipient of a number of awards, including several Dundas Annual National Season Awards (DANSAs) for playwriting, acting and direction, the Meta, a special DANSA for Excellence in Theatre, the Chamber of Commerce Distinguished Citizen Award for contribution to Culture, the Silver Jubilee Award for Culture given by the Government of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas in 1998.
Until his death on November 25, 2006, he served as the Chairman of the National Commission on Cultural Development and chaired the Independence Committee since 2003. In 2004, he was made a Companion of the Order of St. Michael and St. George (CMG). Most recently, in September 2006, his play You Can Lead A Horse To Water was the featured presentation of the Bahamas CARIFESTA Contingent in Trinidad and Tobago.
