BY DESMOND ALLEN From Jamaica Observer

Peers hail ‘The Chairman’ for 50 years of building tourism, people’s lives

MIAMI, United States — Of all those arts in which the wise excel, nature’s chief masterpiece is writing well…

Only those who are endowed with the literary prowess of which the author speaks should attempt to retell the Gordon “Butch” Stewart story — a complex tale of one man’s extraordinary journeys and events that have impacted massive numbers of people and brought the world to the Caribbean.

Even then, who better to tell the story than the man himself who has lived those unbelievable moments that now challenge writers to find unused words for new accolades? At least according to conventional wisdom.

On Thursday, hundreds of his peers, who filled out the ballroom of the prestigious JW Marriott Marquis in downtown Miami, heard Stewart’s rare personal account of how he built the Caribbean brand that daily brings an unending stream of tourists to frolic in the warm, blue waters of the Caribbean Sea and laze away on its pristine beaches.

While they seek to escape the icy chill of the northern climes, those tourists bring critical revenue to hard-up coffers of the islands where Stewart’s Sandals and Beaches resorts operate, making him the largest private foreign exchange earner and employer of labour for Jamaica, Antigua & Barbuda, Grenada, St Lucia, the Turks and Caicos Islands, and second largest in The Bahamas.

Peers, family and friends of Stewart’s came from near and far to celebrate “one of the truly great men of our times” whose life “has enriched countless others of his fellow men” and who has done so while “preserving a humility that defies the dizzying heights of his achievements” over 50 years of building tourism.

The internationally respected Burba Hotel Network (BHN), a world leader in developing and producing conferences for the hotel investment community, chose its annual Caribbean Hotel and Resort Investment Summit (CHRIS) to present the inaugural Lifetime Achievement Award to Gordon “Butch” Stewart for 50 outstanding years of building Caribbean tourism.

Presenting the award in association with the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association, BHN President Jim Burba said Stewart had set the standard for the investment community, and his achievements would be used as the benchmark for future recipients of the accolade.

“I acknowledge that we have set the bar high, but there is no one more suitable than Butch Stewart to launch this programme. He is someone we are proud to own,” Burba said before presenting the award to the Sandals Resorts International chairman and founder who shared the onstage moment with his heir-apparent son, Adam Stewart.

An 18-minute video presentation on Stewart’s work featured tributes from an array of people who were personally touched by Stewart, including lifetime friends and associates. Among them are: prime ministers Keith Mitchell of Grenada; Allen Chastanet of St Lucia; Andrew Holness of Jamaica; former Prime Minister of The Bahamas Hubert Ingraham; Jamaican Government ministers Audley Shaw, Karl Samuda, Edmund Bartlett, and Daryl Vaz.

Greg Norman of golfing fame, Sir Roy Hopkins, Gassan Azan, Richard Edghill, Merrick Fray, Betty Jo Desnoes, Eleonar Miller, Gary Sadler, Roger Seivright, Shawn DaCosta, Paul Souter, Jeremy Jones, Karl Thompson, Arlene Lindo, and Debbie-Ann White also joined Stewart family members in paying heartfelt tribute.

Inviting the chairman to the stage, Adam Stewart also noted that this was his dad’s 50th year in business and that it was awesome for “CHRIS to recognise him at the pinnacle of his career, surrounded by colleagues and friends from our industry, family, executives and members of our team that have helped create so many of these dreams…”

He described the elder Stewart as “our chairman, our friend, our grandpa, our dad, our boss, our hero, our icon”, sparking a standing ovation as Stewart took the stage.

Came the moment for Stewart to recite his life story, and though sharing snippets about the marketing genius that created one of the top three world-renowned Caribbean brands — the others are Fidel Castro and Bob Marley — he devoted his time at the podium to the people who helped him to do it, some of them in the audience.

He thanked his family, the wives and mothers of his children, including current wife Cheryl, whom he said had become his “true love at the end, and part and parcel of Sandals in no small way”.

As always, he mentioned the man who 49 years ago gave him his start in the air-conditioning business, Bruno Giordano Jr, the nephew of the president of Fedders Corporation of the United States. The two became lifelong friends. Giordano was among those cheering on Stewart at the ceremony.

He also spoke of the assistance of Peter Dolara of American Airlines at a time when the airline was critical to Jamaica’s tourism industry but was about to pull out because it was having difficulties collecting money owed to the company. His intervention kept the airline flying and saved the industry.

He singled out Juliet Holness, Minister of Parliament and wife of Prime Minister Holness. She was a special guest at the function.

Of the award, Stewart said: “The strength of this particular award is that it is given in good faith by peers and colleagues…It is a big deal to me.”

He briefly described his “adventure of a lifetime of meeting thousands and thousands of people. I’ve seen the entire world. I’ve been to the entire world in the hope of starting to do some business, to bring some people to Sandals Resorts and Jamaica… It began with the people in the Caribbean, the people in Jamaica.

“When the Almighty passed through the Caribbean, He took a liking to it, He gave it blessings and beauty, next to the greatest economy in the world. And that Almighty paved the road for all of us who have anything to do with the Caribbean, and who are born in the Caribbean, to reap the benefits that are untold. The possibilities of those benefits are only just beginning.

“For the people in government, in the private sector, the people who understand the possibilities of tourism, we have started on a road that is only the beginning. The beauty of the beaches, the beauty of the people, the church-loving aspects of the whole thing make it a place that has wealth, a daily gold mine… and we only need to focus on the abilities that we have in abundance to tap into the greatest market in the world,” said Stewart.

Keynote speaker, Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves, of St Vincent and the Grenadines, used the occasion to invite Stewart to bring Sandals Resorts to his island, noting that a modern airport had been built, along with many other modern infrastructure that would make for a successful tourism industry.

Sandals also operates resorts in Barbados and will soon be operating in Tobago.

IMAGE: Gordon ‘Butch’ Stewart (seated in front with plaque) is surrounded by children, grandchildren, his sister, Patricia Stewart-Hawryluk, daughter-in-law, Jill and wife Cheryl (extreme right) for his big moment.

For more on this story go to: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/the-8216-butch-8217-stewart-legacy-peers-hail-8216-_97348?profile=1373