Special Tribute to the Man who love his nation – Bernard Kenneth Bonamy
A major component of a Cat Island education was called “Recitations” when all students were required to pick out and learn inspirational poems and passages, which many people still hear Cat Islanders quoting, remembered from their school days more than 50 years ago.
One of Cat Island’s favourite poets was Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, from whom BK
as a young boy would have memorized these lines and made them the modus operandi of his life:
“The heights by great men reached and kept were not attained by sudden flight, but they, while their companions slept, were toiling upward in the night”.
Those who lived with BK in ”Bonamy Town” or gone to school with him in Dumphries and Arthur’s Town or worked with him in Batelco or served with him on the Royal Bahamas Police Force, would all attest that this verse was BK’s guiding principle from the moment he woke up at mornings until he retired at evenings.
BK’s rise to Commissioner of Police (Cat Island’s first), was another testimony to the history and tradition of Cat Island in producing National pacesetters who have contributed to the building and strengthening of our little Nation.
Bahamas Press wishes to take this opportunity to offer our condolences and thanks to the Family and friends of the Late BK Bonamy, the entire Cat Island Family, and his family of the RBPF.
