A doctor and teacher who was the first black medical director at the island’s hospital has died.

Ronald Lightbourne was 84.

The father of three, who finished medical school at Loma Linda University in California in 1964, worked at Watts Health Centre in Los Angeles before he returned to Bermuda in 1976 and worked in private practice.

He taught at the Bermuda Institute in Southampton, where his influence on the school included help with a redesign of the school crest.

Dr Lightbourne became a pioneer of free health screening in Bermuda.

He started in 1978 – overcoming doubts to the point where he offered the tests at Cup Match games.

Dr Lightbourne’s memorial said he grew up in the North Hamilton neighbourhood of Elliott and Princess Streets, one of five children born to Leroy and Sarah Lightbourne.

His early impulse to explore included slipping aboard a Bermuda Railway train aged just 4.

Dr Lightbourne excelled as a Boy Scout and became the first in Bermuda to achieve the top distinction of Queen’s Scout.

His family worshipped at the Salvation Army Church, but in 1954, aged 18, Dr Lightbourne joined the Seventh-Day Adventist Church.

He attended the Berkeley Institute and was invited after graduation to teach fifth at sixth grades at Sandringham, as the Bermuda Institute was then known.

But he had his sights set on a career in medicine and earned a Bachelor of Arts degrees in chemistry and education in 1959 from Atlantic Union College in Massachusetts.

He married Louis Wainwright the same year. The couple, who had met in Bermuda at a Seventh-Day Adventist “Saturday night social”, left for California, where Dr Lightbourne enrolled in medical school at Loma Linda.

He finished his internship and residency in internal medicine at White Memorial Medical Centre in California, and in 1970 Dr Lightbourne completed the health administration programme at Loma Linda and earned a Master’s degree in public health.

He was certified by the American Board of Preventive Medicine.

Dr Lightbourne’s experience at Watts was extensive - his positions there ranged from emergency room doctor to medical director and head of preventive services.

He was administrative head of 14 different departments at Watts.

The couple had children Rosalyn, Edwin and Lawrence during their 17 years in California.

Their decision to come back to Bermuda was driven by a desire for the children to meet their family.

Dr Lightbourne specialised in internal and preventive medicine in Bermuda, and began teaching part-time at the Bermuda Institute, offering biology, maths, general science and health classes there for 25 years.

At King Edward VII Memorial Hospital – as well as the police, fire service and St John’s Ambulance Brigade – Dr Lightbourne and his colleague Arnold Botelho taught the emergency medical technician certification course for ambulance drivers.

In 1988, he was asked to be medical director of the hospital and succeeded in getting smoking banned in the building.

Dr Lightbourne served for three years, until a controversial reorganisation of the hospital in 1991 led to the loss of 15 positions.

His service included contributions to the 1996 Oughton Report on healthcare in Bermuda.

Dr Lightbourne was also principal surgeon for the St John’s Ambulance Brigade – and, for 16 years, he served as a clinic physician for the hospital’s indigent care clinic.

Dr Lightbourne also held leading roles in the Bermuda Seventh-Day Adventist Church.

He was recognised for his service to the community in 1988 with the Queen’s Certificate and Badge of Honour.

His family said Dr Lightbourne’s motto was “Wherever I am, I want to serve others.”

Ronald Erskine Lightbourne, a prominent Bermudian doctor, was born on August 5, 1936. He died on September 25, 2020. He was 84.