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Apr 20, 2014 News
“For over a decade, in the 1970s and 1980s I did a technical, business, or music examination every year, all the while still employed at the Waterworks. In fact, my education is ongoing, and I am still doing studies to become a better musician.”
By Dennis A. Nichols
A few weeks ago, during the International Women’s Day activities, local media featured the achievements of pianist and music teacher Marilyn Dewar, and the accolades bestowed on her for her sterling contribution to local music and musicology. She duly graced this publication’s pages as a ‘Special Person’ in early February of 2009.
Today we place the spotlight on her husband of 41 years, and partner (in the most thorough and personal sense of the word) David Dewar, himself a musician of no mean worth, but additionally, so much more – a truly striking and multi-faceted personality, who having once met him, isn’t someone you’ll easily forget. I refer to him as ‘the other half of ‘Team Dewar’.
Many Guyanese, I assume, are good electricians. Some are gifted engineers. Many people venture into business management. Our country has produced several top-notch musicians and singers. A handful of them have ventured into the classical arena. And I know for a fact that there are many compassionate and altruistic Guyanese who have played a vital role in donating blood for the purpose of saving lives and keeping our blood bank in a state of constant repletion. But how many have done all of these? David Dewar has.
I first got acquainted with Mr. Dewar at the Georgetown Sewerage and Water Commissioners (GS&WC) located in what was then known as ‘The Shelter Belt’ where I started out as an apprentice electrician in 1969.He was an electrical technician, and had himself started out five years earlier as an apprentice in the mechanical workshop. He wouldn’t remain there for long, soon becoming recognized as a no-nonsense leader who nevertheless managed an easy-going but respectful relationship with his contemporaries, among them the rough-edged road gang that worked the twenty-four underground pump stations across the city.
Electrical engineering was a job at which he excelled over the years, eventually rising to become Chief Engineer after the entity merged with the Guyana Water Authority, thus establishing the Guyana Water Incorporated (GWI) in 2004. He had also been elevated to the position of Head of Operations, and then Head of Business Improvement there, finally serving as Project Manager for the World Bank-funded Water Improvement Programme.
EARLY CHILDHOOD AND THE JOY OF SINGING
But let’s go back several decades to David’s early childhood. The first of two children born in Almond Street, Queenstown to Lucille and Hilton Dewar in 1948, David attended St. Sidwell’s Anglican School, and later the Wedgewood private school run by the late P.M.A. Homer from his home on Croal Street. David then moved on to Central High School, and upon completion of his secondary education, went on to the Government Technical Institute. It was there between 1964 and 1969 that his interest and aptitude for electrical work were catalyzed, and he never looked back.
But even as he was pursuing his electrical engineering career, David was rather quietly being schooled in another seemingly-unrelated sphere of endeavour – music. Not very surprising since his mother was a music teacher, and was giving young David lessons of practical application in this genre. Several years later David would himself marry a music teacher, Marilyn Hunte,
from one of Guyana’s outstanding musical families.
“I grew up in a home where music was played, and taught, thus I was able to get a Grade Four in Piano and a Grade Two in Theory of Music while still relatively young.” Dewar explained. “Even while I was furthering my career in engineering I didn’t give up music, so by the time I got married (to a music teacher) in 1973, I’d had some practical music and singing experience.” In fact, five years before he got married, David had joined the prestigious Woodside Choir in 1968, a group with the resonating theme, ‘Singing for the Joy of Singing.’
It was a match made in musical heaven. “I used to sing; she could play. We had something in common musically, and it provided a platform for our combined musical expression over the years,” Dewar confided. He added that it was never really a problem balancing his ongoing studies in the electrical/engineering field with his musical education and vocal training. And with respect to the latter, it was soon evident that he had been blessed with a voice that needed only to be honed and fine-tuned to become an instrument of evocative pathos and power. It was a rich baritone that could be upped (downed may be more appropriate) to a low-pitch bass.
OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT
Back at GS&WC in the ‘70s, Dewar was becoming increasingly acquainted with the operations of the 24 sewerage pump stations located across Central Georgetown, after taking over the reins as chief engineer from his predecessor, Neil Savory, in 1983. He would then have been acutely aware of the problem of ‘down time’ (the time that sewage would not be pumped because of damage to the electrical controls located in underground manholes, due to flooding in the city or in the sewerage station from a burst pipe) in the aging system. He did something about it.
“As an engineer, I was able to look at the electrical control systems that were underground in the 24 pump stations located throughout Georgetown, and remove them, placing them above ground in clay brick or concrete kiosks. The pumps down in the manholes were also changed to submersible/immersible ones.” This, Dewar revealed, was what he would consider an outstanding achievement.
There were others: certificates, awards, prizes and commendations. Apart from the childhood music qualifications mentioned earlier, young David received through the technical institute his Electrical Contractor’s Licence, along with certificates in Electrical Installation and a technician’s certificate in Telecommunications. Then it was on to the University of Guyana where he wrote and received the Higher Technician’s Diploma (HTD) in Civil Engineering, followed by a full degree in the same field, graduating twice from
the institution, in 1975, and in 1981. Next it was the Loughborough University of Technology in the United Kingdom in 1987 from which he obtained his Masters in Water and Waste Engineering.
Not satisfied with ‘mere’ engineering, Dewar branched off into business education. He studied with the Association of Business Executives from 1998 to 2000, completing 18 courses in the process to get his Advanced Diploma in Business Management, becoming a Member of the Association of Business Executives.(MABE) All of his was done while still working at GS&WC and later with GWI.
But let’s switch back to music and singing. Dewar went on to complete, with distinction, his finals in Singing at the Grade Eight level in 2012, having passed the two earlier levels. While perfecting his vocal skills, he also started playing on stringed instruments, gaining a Grade Five in Classical Guitar and a Grade Three in Violin, having studied with his wife to this end. He went on to get a Grade Seven in Theory of Music.
NO GREAT DIFFICULTY
Commenting on these diverse spheres of activity, Dewar again implied that he had no great difficulty in juggling engineering, business and music.
“For over a decade, in the 1970s and 1980s I did a technical, business, or music examination every year, all the while still employed at the Waterworks. In fact, my education is ongoing, and I am still doing studies to become a better musician.” He admits that he also ‘wrote a little music’ while studying at Loughborough, setting to music G.K. Chesterton’s “The Christ Child lay on Mary’s Lap” a work that was harmonized by British conductor Richard Roddis and subsequently performed by the Loughborough Choir, and later in Guyana by the Woodside Choir.
Dewar, who is now retired from the GWI, added, “Presently I can ‘work’ as a classical or professional singer, or as a singing teacher. My training allows me to sing in an international choir, and in fact I have sung at some important public events, including performing in the roles of Longfellow’s Hiawatha, set to music by Coleridge Taylor, the biblical patriarch Jacob in the Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice musical, “Joseph and His Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat” and the high priest, Caiaphas, in another Webber/Rice production, Jesus Christ Superstar”. He is also currently a music teacher, tutoring at his Charlotte Street home, and at the Success Elementary School.
Students being taught at his home are being groomed to sit the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music examination based in London, England. Even from a cursory look at the faces and the focus of these children (some of whom I observed unobtrusively while interviewing Mr. Dewar) it is evident that they take their lessons seriously, notwithstanding the joy and camaraderie that exist among them, and with their tutors. The Dewars seem to be as much gracious hosts and parent figures to the youngsters, as they are expert teachers.
Another aspect of Dewar’s commitment to serve is his association with the Anglican Church in Guyana. He currently serves as the warden for Christ Church Anglican where, not surprisingly, his wife Marilyn is the organist. For the past few days they have been extremely busy trying to streamline their church activities geared at participating in services, including cantatas, over the Easter religious holiday weekend, even as they continued to work with their charges.
DONATING BLOOD AND KEEPING FIT
As noted earlier, throughout his long and varied career, Dewar was the recipient of a number of awards. Add to these a few more – Best Student for The Year (twice) at GTI, the Maurice Leigh Prize from the Association of Business Executives for the Best Paper ‘Introduction to Business Communication’ and the Guyana Music Teachers Prize, 2009, for which he was awarded the coveted Philip Pilgrim Memorial Harp, on more than one occasion.
But one of his most prized possessions is a ‘simple’ certificate – one that has to do with another aspect of Dewar’s extraordinary life. It is an award of recognition and gratitude from the National Blood Transfusion Service of the Georgetown Hospital. For what? As of June 2008, he had donated more than 50 units of blood to the organization, becoming one of the country’s top donors since he started giving blood in 1973. Currently, his donation ‘cup’ is filled with 77 units, and he has been advised that he is still healthy enough to continue giving.
Dewar’s Charlotte Street home gives ample evidence of his dedication to fitness. It has an array of lifting and body-strengthening equipment which, he says he employs frequently, I guess, to keep his husky physique in shape. He says he ‘tries’ to keep fit, and hopes to be around for some time, “in order to guide the youngsters , and help to mould and positively influence young minds, musically and otherwise.”
SPECIAL PERSON
Whether or not David Dewar sees, or ever saw himself, as a special person, is an issue that I suspect he would shy away from discussing. He would most likely defer the matter or refrain from comment. But whether or not humility is an integral part of his nature, he should most certainly feel a great sense of pride (not the false kind) in what he has achieved and what he has stood for over the years. For many of us, Guyana is not the easiest place to live and work in, even if you are a gifted, honest, hard-working and spiritually-inclined person, all of which Dewar appears to be.
It is thus more than justifiable to conclude that David Dewar deserves the acknowledgments and encomiums that have come his way, from all Guyanese who appreciate the humanities, creativity and hard work; and that he is indeed, a special person.
Please share this to every Guyanese including your house cats.
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