June 8, 1937-December 19, 2008.
Although born in the United States, Dennis Sherwin was one of Bermuda’s best-loved and most generous adopted sons.
After making the Island his home in 1974, Sherwin, a wealthy retired Washington, D.C. public relations expert, became closely involved with many Bermudian charities that focused on the arts and the environment.
He worked energetically for the Bermuda Festival of the Performing Arts, the Bermuda National Trust and the Bermuda National Gallery and by the time of his death in 2008, he had given away much of his fortune to Bermuda and Bermudians.
Sherwin was born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio, one of three brothers. He studied at the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. between 1957 and 1960, doing his graduate work in American history.
In 1964, he was employed by the Democratic National Committee during Lyndon B. Johnson’s presidency, working for Congressman and future Speaker of the House of Representatives, Thomas S. Foley, and writing speeches for the President.
He then worked for impresario Pat Hayes at the Washington Performing Arts Society, ensuring that performances by luminaries such as pianist Arthur Rubinstein at venues like the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts were sold out.
He put his PR expertise to good use soon after his arrival in Bermuda. John Ellison, chairman of the Bermuda Festival, called on his expertise when it appeared that the first Festival in 1976 would open with barely 30 per cent of seats sold. Sherwin did the job as a volunteer for the next six years and helped ensure that the Festival averaged 90 per cent sales.
Sherwin first came to Bermuda on vacation in the early 1970s. He fell in love with its natural beauty and retired to the Island in 1974, building an impressive house on South Shore, overlooking Cross Bay, Southampton.
John Ellison introduced Sherwin to the Bermuda National Trust (BNT) where he headed the PR committee and served as president from 1987-1990, helping to raise environmental awareness in the face of increased development.
As a patron Sherwin put his money where his mouth was, purchasing Warwick Pond for the Trust as a nature reserve in 1987 (it was renamed the Sherwin Nature Reserve after his death) and paying for the building and maintenance of a public boardwalk at Paget Marsh. He also served as a long-time member of the Trust’s Environmental Committee and the Council.
In the arts, he played a pivotal role in the establishment of the Bermuda National Gallery (BNG). Hereward Watlington, Desmond Fountain and Michael Darling had the Gallery’s governing body, the Bermuda Fine Arts Trust, created by Act of Parliament in 1982, but it was the steering committee, hand-picked by artist and educator Charles Zuill, that made the BNG a reality when it opened in 1992.
The BNG was arguably born in Sherwin’s lounge where the committee, which included Fountain, Ruth Thomas, Sheilagh Head, David Mitchell, Robert Pires, Sylvia Shorto, Kit Astwood, Paul Doughty, Diana Amos, Jay Bluck, John Gardner and Laura Gorham, held most of its meetings.
Sherwin went on to serve on the BNG’s executive, chaired the Exhibitions Committee, sponsored free admission to the Gallery, and was later honoured as a Founding Trustee. He was appointed to serve on the Bermuda Arts Council, and was an active member of Beyond Barriers, an advocacy group dedicated to encouraging more interaction and understanding between races.
He was himself a passionate and astute collector of art. His first acquisition was an original Picasso print sold to him by a dealer in Washington at a suspiciously low price. When Sherwin questioned him about it years later, the dealer claimed he did it so that it would encourage him to collect art.
Sherwin subsequently built up an impressive collection that included works by major artists such as Henri Matisse, Robert Motherwell, Frank Stella, Helen Frankenthaler, Roy Lichtenstein and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. Unusually, he preferred to collect original prints rather than original paintings because he was so fascinated by the complex skills and technology involved.
Many of these works could be found adorning the walls of his Bermuda home, along with those by Bermudian artists such as Graeme Outerbridge, John Kaufmann, Will Collieson and Charles Zuill, as well as African sculpture and his own impressive photographs. Fellow photographer and close friend Outerbridge was among the local artists to whom he was a valued patron and he was godson to Outerbridge’s twin boys, Adam and David.
He was the first recipient of the Bermuda Arts Council’s Patron Award in 2006 and also received the Bermuda National Trust’s highest award, the Silver Palmetto Award, in 2000 in recognition of his services to the Trust.
Sherwin died on December 19, 2008, aged 71, in Cleveland due to complications as a result of diabetes.
He is remembered as an outgoing, friendly and humble person, whose time, energy and counsel that he devoted to numerous organisations and committees was valued as much, if not more, than his generous philanthropy.
David L. White, former chairman of both the Bermuda National Trust and the Bermuda National Gallery, called Dennis Sherwin “the godfather of the environment and the arts in Bermuda. His enthusiasm, his support and his financial generosity will probably never be matched.”
