The Pine East-West Boulevard in The Pine, St Michael, has been renamed the Philip Tudor Boulevard in tribute to the late Chief Technical Officer (CTO) of the Ministry of Transport and Works.

The new signage was unveiled yesterday in a ceremony held at the headquarters of the Barbados Licensing Authority, also in The Pine, where Tudor’s family accepted the honours bestowed by the National Honours Committee.

Speaking during her address, Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley said the honour was in recognition of Tudor’s sterling commitment to the people of Barbados, a duty which was often repaid with a fondness from the public.

“I remind us that this Government has taken a clear position that the right to name places or the right to do things in the honour of people must never be in the hands only of an elected government,” she said.

“A country is more than an elected government and it is for this reason that the example that we set here by naming this boulevard after an outstanding public servant is a message that is not just for the memory and honour of his family, but it is a message from a country about to celebrate its 60th anniversary of Independence and its fifth anniversary of a republic that wherever you work in this country you can provide value and that the notion that we only focus on a political class without recognising that there are people without whom the work in this country would not be possible,” the Prime Minister said.

Listing Tudor’s many successful projects, including from Murphy’s Pasture to White Hill, the Prime Minister recalled how the late CTO rarely shied away from new innovations, always approaching tasks with a view for what was possible, and each interaction sealed with his trademark kindness and patience.

“Philip was a cando man. Whenever we asked him is it possible to do a-b-c, he would say, ‘I don’t know but give me a chance’. His ambition was as large as his humanity and I want to say to those of you who lost him as a friend from work, to honour him by being the best that you can be and by treating people with the respect and dignity that he treated people with. It was never too much for him to be polite or civil to every person that he interacted with,” she said.

The Prime Minister also paid a brief tribute to recently deceased members of the Public Service, marking the loss of committed persons as one of the disadvantages of public life.

“The passing parade gets too quick and too many and with each one it doesn’t get any easier. This country regrettably has lost an active public service, a number of persons who were top of class, Philip Tudor was one. We lost young Magistrate Oliver earlier this year. We lost the head of our military intelligence unit at the Barbados Defence Force who was an outstanding public servant and we lost also an outstanding young lady in Dr Shelly-Ann Cox.

“It is a reminder for balance, but at the same time none of those people who I knew and referred to would ever slow down because they were driven by a purpose of wanting to do better and be better, and that must still be our guiding spirit because without purpose we have no proper existence as human beings,” she added.

(JRN)