Yvette Victoria Angela Swan (20 August 1945 – 18 April 2021) was a Bermudian senator for the United Bermuda Party, optician, and pastor, as well as president of International Federation of Business and Professional Women and Project 5-0.
Biography
editBorn in Saint Thomas Parish, Jamaica[1] to two schoolteachers, she went to study at Paddington Technical College in London and Aston University in Birmingham, studying optometry.[2] Swan would then move to Bermuda with her husband Malcolm,[2] working there as an optometrist.[3] She was appointed as a senator for the United Bermuda Party in 1993, having been a campaigner for the party in Warwick West, she was later made Minister of Community and Cultural Affairs in 1995.[3] She would also serve as Minister for Women's Issues, and addressed the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women.[3] She made two bids for the House of Assembly, one in 1998, running in Warwick West with Quinton Edness,[4][3] the other in 2003, in Warwick North Central, both bids were unsuccessful.[3] She was also president of the International Federation of Business and Professional Women,[5] and Project 5-0.[2]
Swan would later move to Canada, studying Theology and earning her Masters in Divinity at the Atlantic School of Theology.[2] She would go on to become a minister at St. Paul's United Church, in Riverview, New Brunswick, and in 2015 was ordained by the Maritime Conference.[2] Swan spent the last seven years of her life serving the Nashwaak Pastoral Charge.[2]
Bermudian Leader of the Opposition Cole Simons, a member of the One Bermuda Alliance which formed as a merger between the United Bermuda Party and the Bermuda Democratic Alliance, described Swan as "a woman of great passion and dedication, who served tirelessly at various levels of society".[3]
References
edit- ^ International who's who of women 2006 (5th ed.). London: Routledge. 2005. ISBN 1-85743-325-4. OCLC 62343601.
- ^ a b c d e f "Obituary of Rev. Dr. Yvette Victoria Angela Swan | York Funeral Home". yorkfh.com. Retrieved 2022-05-21.
- ^ a b c d e f Bell, Jonathan (2021-04-21). "Yvette Swan (1945-2021): a powerful voice for social justice". Royal Gazette. Retrieved 2022-05-21.
- ^ "Results". elections.gov.bm. Archived from the original on 2013-10-17. Retrieved 2022-05-21.
- ^ "POWER TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE - BPW International". yumpu.com. Retrieved 2022-05-21.