VETERAN CALYPSO TENT manager Peter Roy Byer is dead.
He was 69-years-old.
Byer reportedly passed on just after midday at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, where he was a patient after suffering a recent stroke.
A former videographer with the Barbados Government Information Service for 38 years, Byer photographed from royalty, presidents and prime ministers to the ordinary man. Through his lens, he has captured indelible moments of the social, cultural and political landscape of Barbados, and has worked with all of this country’s political leaders.
His other passion was calypso and he worked tirelessly to uplift the art form through the founding, nurturing and sustaining of the Kingdom of the Super Gladiators tent based at Waterford, St Michael.
Indeed, when Minister of Culture Stephen Lashley visited Byer in hospital earlier this month he spoke glowingly of his contribution to calypso.
Lashley said: “Roy Byer is one of those committed calypso stalwarts who have made a difference to the development of many of our treasured calypsonians.”
Roy is survived by a daughter and his partner, Valmay Bend. (SP)
