A new Progressive Labour Party senator paid tribute in the Upper House to former PLP MP Walter King as well as sports coach Myron Bean.

The Reverend Emily Gail Dill gave condolences to the family of Mr King, who served in the House of Assembly from 1976 to 1980.

Dr Dill said he was “an outstanding golf pro who was part of the original team that opened Port Royal Golf Course”.

“During his time there he assisted and shaped positively the lives of many of our young men.”

She cited his influence on fellow pro Dwayne Pearman, the late Bermuda Industrial Union official Glen Simmons and PLP MP Kim Swan.

Mr King would have played at Port Royal alongside the US pro Jack Nicklaus along with “many world leaders who played the course”, she said.

He later moved to the US.

Dr Dill added: “He was a true gentleman who impacted many.”

She also acknowledged the late Myron Bean of Sandys, an “outstanding gentleman who in his earlier years was very instrumental in the formation of several sports organisations, as well as service as a coach”.

Mr Bean was a member of the Allen Temple African Methodist Episcopal Church in Sandys, where he served on the board of trustees as well as the seniors’ choir.

Dr Dill called him “a gentleman that invested in the lives of others”.