A West End icon and beloved member of staff at the Bermuda Hospitals Board was known across the island for his community spirit and love of song.

Kenneth Simmons Jr, who went by “Pop”, was a fixture of the Hog Bay community in Sandys, where he grew up — and canvassed on behalf of the Progressive Labour Party.

A former president of the Somerset Bridge Recreation Club, where he coached and played on the cricket team as an renowned wicketkeeper, Mr Simmons was freshly retired from the BHB and looking forward to a return to youth coaching.

To reflect his devotion to training young wicketkeepers, his family plan for the celebration of his life to serve as a fundraiser for youth and sports programmes at White Hill Field.

Over the course of a three-decade career with the BHB, Mr Simmons mentored former prison inmates in a work rehabilitation programme of his own making.

He was among hopeful candidates for the PLP in the 2004 by-election for Sandys North after the death of Eugene Cox, the Minister of Finance.

“I’ve always been a community person,” he told The Royal Gazette after he threw his hat in the ring as a PLP contender.

“I feel it’s about time that I get out there and carry the message for the people — that there are people out there who are willing to go to bat for them.”

Michael Scott ultimately prevailed for the governing party in Constituency 36.

Mr Simmons’s community spirit was reflected in his work as a cofounder and treasurer of the Somerset-based group Ambitious Associates, which honoured people who had gone above and beyond — and commemorated the island’s Black achievers.

A member of the Mount Zion African Methodist Episcopal Church, where he gave to charity and sang in the choir, Mr Simmons was widely known as a singer who ran his own production company.

His daughter, Kennette Burgess, said: “He was an all-round entertainer — beyond singing, he would crack jokes. Whether he was on stage or out on the sports field, he was very theatrical and he loved to make people laugh.”

Educated at Southampton Glebe, Saltus, Sandys Secondary and Bermuda College, Mr Simmons was still in high school when he joined the group Brothership Connection, which went on to win second place at the battle of the newcomers competition at the old Rosebank Theatre, losing out to maestro vocalist Elton Richardson.

Singing bass, he joined the male vocal quartet the U-Fonics with Luke Webb, Wendell Simmons and Juboy Smith.

The group, which formed in the early 1970s and wore gloves as a trademark, secured a keen following for their covers of Sixties and Seventies favourites.

The U-Fonics sang at international events as well as local venues such as the Rosebank Revue and the Bermuda Music Festival, along with nightclubs, hotels, sports clubs and schools.

They opened for a host of big-name artists, including the Delfonics, the Drifters, the Marvelettes, the Platters and Tavares.

Mr Simmons and U-Fonics artists later formed the group and event production company The Soul Brothas, and The Soul Family Production.

He was also a host on Magic 102.7FM radio.

As a member of the Bermuda Public Services Union, Mr Simmons served as a shop steward and joined a string of BPSU committees.

The son of a bus driver, Mr Simmons started working by cleaning buses, but set out as an air-conditioning and refrigeration technician after graduating from Bermuda College.

From 1977 until his daughter’s birth in 1987, he worked at Gilbert Darrell Company. Later work included the Hamilton Princess Hotel.

In 1992, Mr Simmons’s BHB career began at King Edward VII Memorial Hospital, where he was taken on as a heating, ventilation and air-conditioning technician and swiftly climbed the ranks to become a supervisor.

Responsibilities included the equipment for medical oxygen, nitrogen and other gases, and the central utility at KEMH that ran emergency generators as well as chillers and the supplies of hot water and steam.

Mr Simmons moved to the Mid-Atlantic Wellness Institute in 2015 as facilities management supervisor.

Danny Moore, BHB’s vice president of facilities management, said: “During Pop’s tenure at the Bermuda Hospitals Board, he was a constant joy to work with.

“He was loved by patients and staff alike. His genuine smile and large personality made him one of the BHB family most loved employees.

“His is a genuine miss to the community across Bermuda.”

Mr Simmons’s retirement in February coincided with his 65th birthday, with the March BHB newsletter calling him “a large man with a warm personality and infectious smile — and a belly laugh that fills the hallways of MWI”.

Ms Burgess said that her father used his BHB job to turn around the lives of former prison inmates — some of whom said that they might be back in Westgate without his mentorship.

“He tried to bring community to every place he worked,” she said. “Out of all his accomplishments, he was very proud of this rehab programme there.

“He was grass roots across the board, somebody who would give you his last dollar. I would bring him lunches and he would share with his facilities team.

“He would worry about everybody else. That’s the type of person he was — community spirited whether it was politics or athletics.”

Ms Burgess called him “a gentle giant” who carried himself with patience and compassion.

“He was a big guy but very soft-hearted because he cared about you. He helped a lot of people, and he was loved because of how much he gave to others.”

Along with his daughter, Mr Simmons is survived by his wife, Karen Grant-Simmons.

A celebration of his life is planned for noon on April 15 at White Hill Field.

• Kenneth Leroy Simmons Jr, a veteran Bermuda Hospitals Board worker prominent in the Progressive Labour Party at the West End as well as the U-Fonics singing group, was born on February 27, 1958. He died on March 25, 2023, aged 65.